World News

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3422615

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Essay by Carl Minzner, Professor at Fordham Law School and a senior fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

China is steadily sliding deeper into the counterreform era. Economically, it is slowing down. Ideologically, it is closing up. Politically, it is steadily pivoting back toward personalistic one-man rule. As these trends deepen, Beijing’s leaders are erasing core elements of both the reform and revolutionary eras, reviving ruinous Maoist governance practices of the 1950s, and turning back to China’s imperial history in an effort to build a new ideological foundation for their authoritarian rule. Far from paving the way for China’s twenty-first-century rise, Beijing’s counterreforms are exacerbating its structural problems, weakening the nation and undermining its stability.

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This era—the time of Xi Jinping—is the age of counterreform. Beijing's prime goal is no longer revolutionary social change or even economic growth, but regime stability [...] As Beijing ... slides deeper into the morass of the counterreform era, the PRC [People's Republic of China] is in fact becoming far weaker and less stable.

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The trend toward closure is spreading. Security officials regularly fan fears of foreign espionage, particularly around April 15, designated since 2016 as National Security Education Day. A 2023 anti-espionage crackdown on consulting firms shocked foreign corporations trying to conduct statistical research and due diligence. China's LGBTQ+ groups, meanwhile, are worried by fresh official messages that not only their organizational activities but their members' own sexual and gender identities themselves may be politically problematic. New laws criminalize defamation of regime-designated martyrs and heroes.

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Economically, China continues to slow. Covid lockdowns, a rapidly aging population, and the implosion of a massive property bubble have taken a toll on the once buzzing economy. Annual growth, which registered 6.7 percent as recently as 2016, has steadily fallen. For 2024, the official rate is expected to come in at no higher than 5 percent (the IMF projection) and could be as low as 3 percent.

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Slowing growth is causing real pain. In 2023, youth unemployment [End Page 7] surged to a record high, topping 21 percent. Local governments reliant on land sales to finance rising expenditures are finding themselves strapped for cash. With surging local-government debt has come unpaid wages and pensions and utility price hikes, which ranged from 10 to 50 percent this year in Shanghai and Guangzhou. China's economy continues to boast real strengths, of course. It leads the world in the manufacture of batteries, solar cells, and electric vehicles. But with graying demographics, unfavorable geopolitical winds, and national leaders who resist a shift to a growth model focused on domestic consumption, China faces a slower, more stagnant economic future.

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The party-state's propaganda organs have been infusing portrayals of Xi with the strengthening aroma of a cult of personality. Official portraits of him grow ever larger while CCP [Chinese Communist Party] publications grow ever more replete with his quotations. And woe be to the careless cadre who misprints the supreme leader's name. When, in March 2023, a single sentence in the CCP-flagship People's Daily that was supposed to mention him nonetheless failed to do so, millions of copies were recalled.

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The ruthless and comprehensive "rectification" of Hong Kong since 2019, however, has been the most spectacular example of Beijing's erosion of prior bureaucratic and technocratic norms.

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Stronger controls over private life are returning as well. To ward off the specter of social unrest, Xi has been reviving Maoist models of neighborhood surveillance. Since 2017, moreover, mass political detentions in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang have seen more than a million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities sent to reeducation camps. Well-off urban Chinese citizens initially brushed these off as anachronistic ideological throwbacks or necessary measures to tame ethnic trouble in remote borderlands.

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What I see [...] is a China in decay. The country today resembles less a rapidly rising power such as the Soviet Union or Japan in the 1950s—full of vigor, on the cusp of a decades-long expansion—and more a mix of stagnant Brezhnevera USSR and 1990s Japan, after its economic bubble collapsed and it entered a long period of sluggish growth. Resting crazy-quilt style atop the whole thing is a patchwork of unresolved Maoist politics, latent reform-era social tensions (inequality is now as sharp as it is in the United States), and the approaching reality of China's becoming (by about 2050) the world's most aged society.

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As China heads deeper into the counterreform era, the country's worst enemies are neither the foreign threats that Beijing imagines around every corner nor the rising domestic tensions that the regime wants so desperately to suppress. Rather, they are China's own historical and institutional demons that the PRC's leaders are in the process of reviving.

Israel has killed 3 people after bombing a residential building in a neighbourhood of Damascus, allegedly frequented by Iranian officials.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3413944

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Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taiwan held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China"

Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day.

A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration.

“Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles.

[...]

“Today is to commemorate Hong Kong’s martyrs. We do not celebrate China’s National Day,” it quoted a demonstrator as saying. “We are in Taiwan, and people are free to express their opinion.”

Taiwanese independence advocate Lee Wen-pin (李文賓) and the man reportedly pushed and slapped each other.

“You cannot touch other people’s belongings... We are asking you to leave now,” Lee said, before he called the police.

The man refused to leave and kept saying that “China has sovereignty over Taiwan,” and that “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.”

“Taiwan belongs to Taiwanese, and Hong Kong belongs to Hong Kongers,” the demonstrators said in response.

Later, police officers arrived at the scene and persuaded the couple to leave.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3414111

Reports suggest that Russia plans to spend more than US$500 million in 2024 alone on so-called “patriot projects.” Much of this effort focuses on two areas: the creation of Russian nationalist youth groups, and the politicization of the nation’s schools – both of which have been increasingly prioritized since the war in Ukraine began.

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[The most recent organization to faciliate the Russia's politiccization of the youth] is called the Movement of the First. The organization was launched at Putin’s behest in 2022, months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is modeled on the Young Pioneers – a youth organization of Stalinist ideology during the Soviet years.

Putin has boasted that the organization constitutes a “huge army” and routinely praises its activities, which include everything from more traditional civic activities, like tree planting, to explicitly ideological goals. Children, for example, write letters to service members deployed in the invasion of Ukraine.

[...] Another youth group, the Volunteers of Victory, was established by the Russian state in 2015 and has a similar tie-in to Ukraine, as it was launched shortly after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

[...] Among Russia’s biggest youth organization is the The Youth Army, which claims more than 1.6 million members. It was established in 2016 under Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, with the goal of training children for future careers in the uniformed military.

The organization tries to entice young people to join by touting self-actualization and social belonging in the military. Members are instructed in ideological topics like nationalism and more hands-on training like how to handle weapons.

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In 2023, officials in Russia’s far-eastern regions came up with another general curriculum patriotic project, “The ABC of the Important Matters”. The alphabet, which includes words like “army,” “faith,” “honor,” “fatherland,” “homeland” and “traditions,” is already being taught in many kindergartens and elementary schools.

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Archived version

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Ruohui Yang is one of those students. He said he came to Canada in 2015 when he was 15 years old because his parents wanted him to study abroad.

In Canada, he said, he began learning things about his home country — such as details of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre — that challenged the Chinese government's version of events.

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"I do already receive lots of threatening [messages], lots of swearing words, insults on my different social media accounts," he said.

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In May, Amnesty International released a report on the experiences of Chinese dissidents abroad. The report said many Chinese international students attending foreign universities are living in a climate of fear.

"They feel compelled to self-censor and curtail their social and academic activities and relationships or else risk repercussions from the Chinese state," the report says.

[...]

An organization called the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) is active on university campuses across the country.

A 2019 report by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) quotes the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) describing the CSSA as "an important support mechanism for international students studying abroad [that provides] a social and professional network for students."

But the NSICOP report also reported growing public alarm over the relationship between the CSSA and the Chinese government's embassies and consulates.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3384598

China’s sputtering economy has its worried leaders pulling out all the stops.

They have unveiled stimulus measures, offered rare cash handouts [highly unusual as the Chinese Communist Party rejects any kind of social welfare because -according to the party's narrative- it makes people lazy], held a surprise meeting to kickstart growth and tried to shake up an ailing property market with a raft of decisions - they did all of this in the last week.

On Monday, Xi himself spoke of "potential dangers" and being "well-prepared" to overcome grave challenges, which many believe was a reference to the economy.

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Beyond the crisis in real estate, steep public debt and rising unemployment have hit savings and spending. The world’s second-largest economy may miss its own growth target - 5% - this year.

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[...] New pieces of research [...] found that Chinese people were growing pessimistic and disillusioned about their prospects. The second is a record of protests, both physical and online, that noted a rise in incidents driven by economic grievances.

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Researchers conducted their surveys in 2004 and 2009, before Xi Jinping became China’s leader, and during his rule in 2014 and 2023. The sample sizes varied, ranging between 3,000 and 7,500.

In 2004, nearly 60% of the respondents said their families’ economic situation had improved over the past five years - and just as many of them felt optimistic about the next five years.

The figures jumped in 2009 and 2014 - with 72.4% and 76.5% respectively saying things had improved, while 68.8% and 73% were hopeful about the future.

However in 2023, only 38.8% felt life had got better for their families. And less than half - about 47% - believed things would improve over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the proportion of those who felt pessimistic about the future rose, from just 2.3% in 2004 to 16% in 2023.

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Respondents were from 26 Chinese provinces and administrative regions. The 2023 surveys excluded Xinjiang and parts of Tibet.

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Those who were not willing to speak their minds did not participate in the survey, the researchers said. Those who did shared their views when they were told it was for academic purposes, and would remain confidential.

Their anxieties are reflected in the choices that are being made by many young Chinese people. With unemployment on the rise, millions of college graduates have been forced to accept low-wage jobs, while others have embraced a “lie flat” attitude, pushing back against relentless work. Still others have opted to be “full-time children”, returning home to their parents because they cannot find a job, or are burnt out.

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Analysts believe China’s iron-fisted management of Covid-19 played a big role in undoing people’s optimism.

“[It] was a turning point for many… It reminded everyone of how authoritarian the state was. People felt policed like never before,” said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

Many people were depressed and the subsequent pay cuts "reinforced the confidence crisis,” he added.

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Does hard work pay off? Chinese people now say ‘no’

In 2004, 2009 and 2014, more than six in 10 respondents agreed that "effort is always rewarded" in China. Those who disagreed hovered around 15%.

Come 2023, the sentiment flipped. Only 28.3% believed that their hard work would pay off, while a third of them disagreed. The disagreement was strongest among lower-income families, who earned less than 50,000 yuan ($6,989; £5,442) a year.

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In 2023, a majority of the respondents in the Whyte and Rozelle study believed people were rich because of the privilege afforded by their families and connections. A decade earlier, respondents had attributed wealth to ability, talent, a good education and hard work.

This is despite Xi’s signature “common prosperity” policy aimed at narrowing the wealth gap, although critics say it has only resulted in a crackdown on businesses.

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[Researchers also] saw a rise in protests led by rural residents and blue-collar workers over land grabs and low wages, but also noted middle-class citizens organising because of the real estate crisis. Protests by homeowners and construction workers made up 44% of the cases across more than 370 cities.

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Chinese leaders are certainly concerned [...] Censors have been cracking down on any source of financial frustration - vocal online posts are promptly scrubbed, while influencers have been blocked on social media for flaunting luxurious tastes. State media has defended the bans as part of the effort to create a “civilised, healthy and harmonious” environment. More alarming perhaps are reports last week that a top economist, Zhu Hengpeng, has been detained for critcising Xi's handling of the economy.

The Communist Party tries to control the narrative by “shaping what information people have access to, or what is perceived as negative”, Mr Slaten said.

• 6:09PM 200 missiles launched at Israel

Nearly 200 missiles have been launched at Israel from Iran, Israel’s army radio announced.

• 6:06PM IRGC vows ‘crushing attacks’ if Israel responds

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have threatened “crushing attacks” for Israel if it responds to the missile barrage launched on Tuesday evening.

• 6:04PM Iran says Tel Aviv is target of attack

Iran has launched a missile attack on Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, state media reported, citing officials.

The official IRNA news agency said Iran had launched “a missile attack on Tel Aviv”, without elaborating after staying quiet during the start of the barrage.

• 6:03PM Explosions in Jerusalem

Explosions sounded in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening as air raid sirens rang out, AFP journalists reported, with what appeared to be air defence interceptors echoing over the city.

The explosions came shortly after the military said that Iran had launched a missile attack targeting Israel.

See also BBC and AP coverage:

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg4qx62kkxxt
• https://apnews.com/live/israel-lebanon-ground-operation-updates

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/43734368

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3360939

Chinese woman has been arrested in the German city of Leipzig on suspicion of foreign agent activities and allegedly passing on information regarding arms deliveries, the prosecutor general said in a statement on Tuesday.

The suspect, named only as Yaqi X, is accused of passing on information she obtained while working for a logistics company at Leipzig/Halle airport to a member of the Chinese secret service, who is being prosecuted separately, the statement said.

The information passed along in 2023 and 2024 included flight, cargo and passenger data as well as details on the transportation of military equipment and people with ties to a German arms company, it added.

The Chinese Embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Tensions have been simmering between Berlin and Beijing over the past year after Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled a strategy towards de-risking Germany's economic relationship with China, calling Beijing a "partner, competitor and systemic rival".

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3363029

Archived link

The fear of what the future held for Zhang (not his real name) and his children propelled the 39-year-old Chinese citizen from Shandong province on a journey so difficult and dangerous that many struggle to understand why someone from China would embark on it. Most of Zhang’s new neighbours in the European Balkans come from war-torn countries in the Middle East. Until recently, Zhang had a stable job working for a private company in the world’s second-biggest economy, earning an above average salary. But the political environment in China left him feeling that he had no choice other than to leave.

Zhang is one of a small but growing number of Chinese people who are travelling to the Balkans with the hope of getting into the EU by whatever means necessary.

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David Stroup, a lecturer of Chinese politics at the University of Manchester, says that the rapid expansion of China’s surveillance state during the pandemic combined with a gloomy economic outlook were some of the driving forces for this new wave of Chinese migrants.

“The lockdowns created a sense that ordinary people who were just living their lives could somehow find themselves under heavy observation of the state or subjected to long arbitrary periods of lockdown and confinement,” Stroup said.

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Part of the reason that Bosnia is an attractive staging post for Chinese migrants, is that like its neighbour Serbia, it offers visa-free travel. Aleksandra Kovačević, spokesperson for Bosnia’s Service for Foreigner’s Affairs, a government department, said that Chinese people were “gaining statistical significance as persons who increasingly violate migration regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. She said that along with Turkish citizens, Chinese people were trying to use legal entry into Bosnia as a way to “illegally continue their journey to the countries of western Europe”.

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Many ordinary Chinese occasionally feel the rough end of the government’s tight control over public speech. Most learn to keep their head down and, begrudgingly or not, quietly navigate the invisible red lines that dictate what can be freely talked about. But Zhang couldn’t bear it.

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“China’s control over speech is getting tighter and tighter. They don’t allow people to talk about political parties, and no matter if the government is doing a good or bad job, they don’t allow people to talk about it. It is limiting people’s freedom of speech tremendously, and that’s the most important thing I can’t accept,” Zhang says. “The economy is secondary”.

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Diplomats and other officials walked out of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to defend his nation's slaughter of more than 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip during the past year and over 700 in Lebanon this week.

Journalists and critics of the "global pariah" shared photos and videos of people filing out of the hall before Netanyahu's address—which came just a day after 25 anti-genocide protesters were arrested for blocking his motorcade in Manhattan.

While there was some audience applause from the sparsely populated room on Friday, Al Jazeera Arabic's Rami Ayari explained that "the people you hear cheering the PM during the speech are in the gallery who he brought for that purpose.".

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Slovenia Prime Minister Robert Golob: "I want to say this out loud and clear to the Israeli Government: Stop the bloodshed. Stop the suffering. Bring the hostages home and end the occupation. Mr. Netanyahu, stop this war now!"

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Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—one of whom Israel recently assassinated in Iran. Israel also claims to have killed a second Hamas leader, which the group has denied.

• Indonesia has imposed curbs on cheap imports to rein in e-commerce platforms
• There is growing resentment across Southeast Asia against Chinese e-commerce firms
• Import tariffs can create tensions and hurt some local businesses
• Other countries in Southeast Asia are also cracking down with higher import duties and outright bans on some China imports

The Indonesian government says it wants to protect its local business from cheap Chinese online imports, with a plan to impose import duties of up to 200% on a broad range of goods including textiles, clothing, footwear, cosmetics, and electronics. The measures are largely aimed at Chinese imports, which have surged in recent years as e-commerce platforms gained in popularity.

“If we are flooded with imported goods, our micro, small and medium enterprises could collapse,” Zulkifli Hasan, Indonesia’s trade minister, said in a briefing in July. These businesses make up about 60% of the country’s gross domestic product, and employ around 120 million people, according to government data.

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

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

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

Bibi Nazdana [have been granted divorce] after a two-year court battle to free herself from life as a child bride [which] a Taliban court has invalidated.

Nazdana is a victim of the group’s hardline interpretation on Sharia (religious law) which has seen women effectively silenced in Afghanistan’s legal system.

Nazdana’s divorce is one of tens of thousands of court rulings revoked since the Taliban took control of the country three years ago this month. It took just 10 days from them sweeping into the capital, Kabul, for the man she was promised to at seven to ask the courts to overturn the divorce ruling she had fought so hard for.

[...]

The Taliban have also systematically removed all judges – both male and female – and replaced them with people who supported their hardline views.

Women were also declared unfit to participate in the judicial system. "Women aren't qualified or able to judge because in our Sharia principles the judiciary work requires people with high intelligence," says Abdulrahim Rashid, director of foreign relations and communications at Taliban's Supreme Court.

[...]

Former Supreme Court judge Fawzia Amini - who fled the country after the Taliban returned - says there is little hope for women’s protections to improve under the law if there are no women in the courts.

"We played an important role," she says. "For example, the Elimination of Violence against Women law in 2009 was one of our achievements. We also worked on the regulation of shelters for women, orphan guardianship and the anti-human trafficking law, to name a few."

She also rubbishes the Taliban overturning previous rulings, like Nazdana's.

"If a woman divorces her husband and the court documents are available as evidence then that's final. Legal verdicts can't change because a regime changes," says Ms Amini.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/3323880

[...] For an increasing number of critics, Ireland being home to Chinese firms links the country to the human rights abuse allegations levelled against some such companies. These include Chinese clothing firm Shein, which since May 2023 has had its European headquarters in Dublin.

[...]

In May, Ireland’s Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Dara Calleary, welcomed a report celebrating how Huawei was contributing €800m ($889m; £668m) per year to the Irish economy. The firm has three research and development centres in Ireland.

This is the same Huawei whose telecoms network equipment the US has banned since 2022 due to concerns over national security. The UK has moved in the same direction, ordering phone networks to remove Huawei components. And mobile phone networks in many Western nations, including Ireland, no longer offer Huawei handsets.

Meanwhile, WuXi has, since 2018, invested more than €1bn in a facility in Dundalk, near the border with Northern Ireland.

Earlier this month the US House of Representatives passed a bill to restrict US firms’ ability to work with WuXi, again citing national security concerns. The bill now has to go to the US Senate.

[...]

Prominent critics of Ireland rolling out a “green carpet” to Chinse firms include Barry Andrews, one of Ireland's members of the European Parliament. “Human rights and environmental abuses should not be allowed in Irish shopping baskets,” says the Fianna Fáil MEP.

He points to a US Congress report from last year, which said there was “an extremely high risk that Temu’s supply chains are contaminated with forced labour”.

Temu had told the investigation that it had a “zero-tolerance policy” towards the practice.

“One person’s bargain is another’s back-breaking work for poverty wages,” adds Mr Andrews, whose party is part of the current Irish government coalition.

[...]

Some leading economists question whether Ireland even needs the few thousand jobs that the Chinese firms provide.

“Ireland’s economy has been running at near full employment for the best part of a decade," says Dan O'Brien, chief economist at Ireland's Institute of International and European Affairs.

[...]

Mr O’Brien says that Ireland’s level of FDI was already too high without the Chinese investment on top. “Given we are already overly dependent on FDI in a world that is at risk of deglobalisation, we don’t need another major source of FDI on top of that from the United States.”

He adds EU rules should be “actively used to discourage Chinese FDI” in Ireland.

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Archived version

Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) has unveiled a leaked audit report, sent to their Washington, D.C., address, that exposes Volkswagen’s (VW) blatant attempts to whitewash its complicity in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) genocidal policies in Urumchi. The audit, conducted by Guangdong Liangma Law and overseen by Berlin-based consultancy Löning, failed to meet the most basic international social accountability standards. Volkswagen’s claims of being cleared of forced labor allegations are not just misleading–they are part of a deliberate cover-up that implicates VW in one of the world’s worst human rights atrocities.

VW’s December 2023 assertion that their audit found “no indication of forced labor” in their Urumchi factory has now been thoroughly discredited by this leaked audit report, which CFU exclusively received in August 2024.

[...]

The leaked audit shows that interviews were live-streamed to law offices in Shenzhen, directly enabling Chinese state surveillance. In addition, the report showed that only managers were asked questions related to forced labor. Volkswagen’s Urumchi plant, which operates in partnership with state-owned SAIC Motor Corporation, employs 197 staff, nearly a quarter of whom are Uyghur. However, the audit’s failure to directly question workers about forced labor practices undermines the integrity of the findings, further implicating VW in the region’s human rights abuses.

[...]

Volkswagen has yet to provide a detailed response to these allegations, citing “contractual confidentiality obligations.”

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Archived version

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Over the past three decades, Jimmy Lai’s name has become synonymous with Hong Kong’s struggle for democracy: his newspaper Apple Daily, which was launched in the mid-90s, morphed from a local tabloid to what was widely considered a bold pro-democracy voice and critic of Beijing — until it was shut down by authorities in 2021.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997. The civil liberties and freedoms enjoyed in the special administrative region were to be preserved for at least 50 years under the "one country, two systems" framework, however, Beijing has made increasing efforts to control Hong Kong’s political system and silence dissent in the less than 30 years since.

Lai has experienced China's encroachment first-hand.

He was first arrested during the Umbrella Movement of 2014 when tens of thousands of people took to the streets and staged a months-long sit-in in protest against the Chinese government's plan to restrict elections.

[...]

Jimmy Lai was arrested in August 2020 and has since been held in a maximum-security prison in Hong Kong on a number of charges under the national security law.

"They’re drawing out his trial and it’s inhumane because, at almost 77, he is being kept in a cell in solitary confinement for more than 1300 days; he doesn’t get any natural light," Sebastien [Lai, who is Jimmy Lai's son] says.

[...]

Weyland is one of hundreds of thousands of people across Germany who have embraced balkonkraftwerk, or balcony solar. Unlike rooftop photovoltaics, the technology doesn’t require users to own their home, and anyone capable of plugging in an appliance can set it up. Most people buy the simple hardware online or at the supermarket for about $550 (500 euros.)

More than 550,000 of them dot cities and towns nationwide, half of which were installed in 2023. During the first half of this year, Germany added 200 megawatts of balcony solar. Regulations limit each system to just 800 watts, enough to power a small fridge or charge a laptop, but the cumulative effect is nudging the country toward its clean energy goals while giving apartment dwellers, who make up more than half of the population, an easy way to save money and address the climate crisis.

Archived version

A new report obtained by Ukraine's allies points to a Chinese company sending a range of purpose-built military drones to Russia for testing, with the ultimate destination being Ukraine.

The deal occurred last year, according to a western official, who was unable to disclose the name of the company. However, they said there was “clear evidence now that Chinese companies are supplying Russia with deadly weapons for use in Ukraine”.

“While the Chinese government might not admit it, they are going to struggle to keep their increasing support under wraps,” added the official, appearing to accuse Beijing of being involved or aware of the delivery.

They also confirmed a Reuters report from earlier in the week that Russia is believed to have established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine. [...]