China

The German media outlet TAZ - a centre-left publishing house - has published the linked article in German. Here is a English summary, but you're gonna find useful translation for full text.

More than a thousand protesters fought a street battle with special police forces in the southwestern Chinese city of Jiangyou [in Sichuan province]. The angry crowd threw bottles and rubbish on the security forces and shouted again and again: “Give us back our democracy!”

The police beat up on the crowd, dragged individuals over the asphalt and finally drove them on barred cargo areas of trucks like cattle.

What caused the popular anger? The so-called Jiangyou incident started with an apparently apolitical crime case. A 14-year-old girl from simple backgrounds – the mother deaf, the father physically disabled – was lured into an abandoned building by three classmates.

Authorities responded only after massive public pressure

The abuse took place on 22. July, but the alarmed authorities were apparently slow and unmotivated. Only after massive public pressure did they issue a statement that the perpetrators got away with mild punishments – two are supposed to be transferred to a school with special educational measures, one came away with an instruction.

The father of the victim, an illiterate, is also said to have been urged by the police to sign a settlement that he did not understand.

The public suspected a two-class justice system. Because the parents of the perpetrators, it was said in rumors on social media, have good connections to the authorities.

With hundreds of sympathizers, the family of the victim moved to the city administration, where some people stormed the building. The police mobilized special forces units and at least one military vehicle with jammers to block Internet and mobile phones.

Circumventing censorship with the help of US platforms

In China’s Internet, the Jiangyou incident is a politically sensitive issue. The state-controlled media are only allowed to report on the basis of strict guidelines. And on social media, the algorithm of the censorship authorities selects which comments become public.

But activists abroad, who have been observing China’s protest movements for years, were able to archive images of the incident in the few minutes before censorship took effect. Then videos and texts were uploaded to X, Youtube or Instagram. China’s censorship has no access to these US platforms.

There, Chinese can debate the topic with a VPN software. “My heart hurts,” comments an Internet user. Another says: “A government without credibility; a breeding ground for corruption and bribery; a country tainted to its foundations.”

“The case is not unique, but it really excited me because I was once a victim of bullying in school,” recalls a Chinese man who lives abroad today: In front of classmates, gawking passers-by and even the guard of the school, he was once beaten hospital-ready. The advertisement tried to prevent the school management in order not to damage their reputation.

Small local protests are commonplace in China

In fact, there are thousands of social protests in China every year. They usually take place far from the public. They are local protests with few participants against forced relocations, medical malpractice and corrupt cadres.

[...]

The number of demonstrators is also crucial: the more protested, the more likely the police intervene.

This was also the case at the end of 2022, when, for the first time in years, protesters in the major metropolises directly challenged the central government. “Down with Xi Jinping!” shouted crowds in Shanghai at protesters against the zero covid policy. Identification thanks to effective digital monitoring

But the power of the digital surveillance state was also evident: All demonstrators, even if they took to the streets without a smartphone and wore face masks, could be identified. Some got away with an interrogation and a warning, others disappeared for months.

[...]

Macao authorities should unconditionally release the former lawmaker and veteran pro-democracy activist Au Kam San (區錦新), who was arrested on national security charges, Human Rights Watch said today. This is the first time the draconian Law on Safeguarding National Security has been invoked in China’s Macao Special Administrative Region.

On July 30, 2025, Macao police arrested Au for violating article 13 of the national security law, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence. Au is being held without bail pending investigation.

“The arrest of Au Kam San reflects the broadening repression radiating from China to Hong Kong and Macao under Chinese leader Xi Jinping,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “Macao’s authorities should stop suppressing peaceful criticism and immediately and unconditionally free this activist and former legislator.”

[...]

Archived

September 9, 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of an entity labeled as “Tibet Autonomous Region” (TAR), a province-level administrative division in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which encompasses merely roughly half of Tibet. While Chinese state media is striking a predictably upbeat tone on the anniversary, the reality is that Tibetans have little to celebrate.

“For our brothers and sisters in Tibet, the last sixty years have lurched from one calamity to another,” said International Campaign for Tibet President Tencho Gyatso. “Instead of forcing Tibetans to put on a performance of gratitude, China must change course and put the interests of the Tibetan people ahead of their own compulsive need for power and control.”

[...]

The PRC’s invasion of Tibet, and subsequent illegal occupation, was accompanied by promises of regional autonomy, freedom of religious belief, the development of Tibet’s languages, and a clause stating that there would be no compulsion on the part of China’s government over Tibet.

These promises were immediately violated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After the Dalai Lama’s 1959 flight from Tibet all pretenses were discarded, and in 1965 the Chinese authorities unveiled the “Tibet Autonomous Region”. In the time since, no Tibetan has ever been appointed to rule the TAR as the Party Secretary; every single Party Secretary has been Chinese, a list which includes prominent human rights abusers such as Chen Quanguo (the architect of China’s mass internment campaign in East Turkestan/Xinjiang) and hyper-corrupt cadres such as Wu Yingjie (recently arrested and sentenced to accepting over ¥343 million in bribes).

[...]

Many say control measure for mosquito-borne disease hark back to the zero-Covid era, in which people’s daily lives were strictly monitored.

[...]

A single mother living in Zhanjiang, a port city in Guangdong province, posted a video on social media this week showing a group of people, including a uniformed police officer, entering her children’s bedroom in the middle of the night and taking blood samples from the boy and the girl, without their mother’s presence or consent. The mother had been working a night shift so was not at home.

[...]

Health authorities in Guangdong are on high alert because of an outbreak of Chikungunya that started about a month ago in Foshan, a city 260km from Zhanjiang. There have been about 8,000 reported cases so far, and at least one imported case in Hong Kong, a city that borders Guangdong.

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease that can only be spread by being bitten by an insect with the virus. Symptoms include fever, muscle and joint pain, nausea and a rash. In rare cases, symptoms can last for months or even years. But it is rarely fatal. Babies, elderly people and people with underlying health conditions are most at risk.

There are regular Chikungunya outbreaks in Asia, Africa and the Americas, but this is the first time that there has been a major occurrence in China.

[...]

A large protest erupted in the south-western Chinese city of Jiangyou, videos on social media have shown, after the beating of a young girl by three other teenagers caused public outrage.

Protests of this scale are rare in China, where opposition to the ruling Communist party and anything seen as a threat to civil order is swiftly quashed.

But bullying in the country’s ultra-competitive education system has touched a public nerve, with a high-profile killing last year prompting national debate over how the law deals with juvenile offenders.

[...]

Later on Monday, people gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, in Sichuan province, with large crowds stretching around the block, footage showed.

Video confirmed as having been shot outside the city hall showed at least two people being forcibly pulled aside by a group of blue-shirted and plainclothes police, and a woman in a black dress being dragged away by her limbs.

“They’re sweeping away citizens everywhere,” a person can be heard saying as the woman is dragged away.

More footage taken after dark showed police wearing black Swat uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection where there were hundreds of bystanders.

[...]

Last year Chinese authorities vowed to crack down on school bullying after a high-profile murder case. In December, a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for murdering his classmate.

The suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, were accused of bullying a 13-year-old classmate over a long period before killing him in an abandoned greenhouse.

Another boy was given 12 years in prison, while a third, who the court found did not harm the victim, was sentenced to correctional education.

Archived

Tim Niven, Research Head of Double Think Lab recalled an incident in early 2023, when a pro-China former legislator in Taiwan posted on his Facebook an (obviously unfounded) story that “Biden has a plan for the destruction of Taiwan,” citing “a famous radio host based out of Washington, D.C.” Local CCP proxy media was eager to report on it, prompting Taiwan’s foreign ministry to release a statement on it. China was also quick to capitalize on the news by responding to it in their press briefing.

The team at Double Think Lab managed to trace the source back to a Russian state-media journalist on Twitter, while a separate verification of TFC found that the “D.C.-based journalist” had his name on the website of Sputnik, a Russian state-owned news agency, where he was listed as a Radio Sputnik journalist based in Washington DC. His Twitter account is also notable for a series of bizarre information disguised as “breaking news” or “leak.” Despite all the effort to debunk that fabricated story, it understably blew up on the internet and local [Taiwanese] media.

[...]

Overcapacity – from electric vehicles to high-speed rail to housing – is destroying profits as well as GDP

China’s astounding technological success in mass-producing quality electric vehicles (EVs) sits alongside a serious flaw in its industrial model: overcapacity.

It has the capacity to produce about three times as many units as it can sell at home. The consequences so far have included widespread price cutting, large losses, misallocation of capital, and surging low-cost EV exports leading to trade conflict.

The bigger problem, though, is that EVs are just a part of a broader overcapacity problem involving a myriad of sectors and products.

NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time in over seven years, a government source said on Wednesday, in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise.

Modi will go to China for a summit of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that begins on Aug. 31, the government source, with direct knowledge of the matter, told Reuters. India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

His trip will come at a time when India's relationship with the U.S. faces its most serious crisis in years after President Donald Trump imposed the highest tariffs among Asian peers on goods imported from India, and has threatened an unspecified further penalty for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39861120

Chinese students at UK universities are being pressured to spy on their classmates in an attempt to suppress the discussion of issues that are sensitive to the Chinese government, a new report suggests.

The UK-China Transparency (UKCT) think tank says its survey of academics in China studies also highlighted reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.

It comes days after a new law came into force placing more responsibility on universities to uphold academic freedom and free speech.

The Chinese embassy in London called the report "groundless and absurd", adding that China respects freedom of speech in the UK and elsewhere.

The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), says freedom of speech and academic freedom are "fundamental" to higher education.

The new legislation, which came into force last week, says universities should do more to actively promote academic freedom and freedom of speech, including in cases where institutions have agreements in place with other countries.

Universities could be fined millions if they fail to do so, the OfS has said.

However, the UKCT report says some universities are reluctant to address the issue of Chinese interference because of their financial reliance on Chinese student fees.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39921932

Archived

At a time when authoritarian governments are assaulting international human rights law as never before, Argentina’s highest criminal court has taken an extraordinarily positive step. On June 18, the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation held that a case brought by Uyghurs against Chinese government officials for alleged crimes against humanity and genocide should proceed. While there are many challenges ahead, the court’s decision offers a critical source of hope to the victims and survivors who are seeking justice for Beijing’s ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang.

It also refocuses the world’s attention on the Uyghur genocide, an issue often overshadowed by media coverage of atrocities and war crimes in other parts of the world, and enhances the prospect of legal accountability for responsible Chinese officials.

The Uyghurs — 12 million people of Turkic descent who have been reduced to a minority population in their own homeland, now in northwestern China — have long been a target of the Chinese government’s systematic discrimination and repression. [...] detaining hundreds of thousands of people across the region, subjecting them to political indoctrination, torture, cultural persecution, and other forms of gender-related violence against women and girls. Contact with family members in the region and outside the country ceased as Uyghurs were disappeared into the shadows of what Beijing called “vocational training and education centers,” but which were widely recognized as concentration camps.

Beijing also stepped up its transnational repression against Uyghur activists outside China. In recent years, Beijing’s tactics have shifted, partly to create a veneer of legality to rebut international criticism, but remain no less abusive: it now instills region-wide fear through sham prosecutions in a legal system that serves as an instrument of Party power. To date, there have been few reports of releases from arbitrary detention facilities, leaving many victims forcibly disappeared. Such rights violations and State violence echo those committed by Argentina’s military dictatorship.

[...]

The [Argentina] Cassation Court’s latest judgment, which remanded the case to the original court, now allows a criminal investigation to go forward. Victims will finally have their voices heard in the Argentine courts. While these proceedings may take years to complete, they revive the Uyghur case, allowing victims to gather further evidence, especially concerning responsible Chinese officials who are traveling abroad. At the prosecutor’s request, the Federal Criminal Court of Buenos Aires could also issue an international arrest warrant for responsible Chinese officials, including senior leaders, similar to those issued in February for 25 Myanmar officials, including the former pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a case brought by a Rohingya advocacy group.

Additionally, the Argentine courts could issue an Interpol Red Notice — a mechanism Beijing has frequently exploited to persecute dissidents. Unlike China’s misuse, Argentina’s Red Notice would legitimately serve its intended purpose by facilitating international cooperation to apprehend individuals genuinely implicated in serious crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity. Lastly, the Rohingya case has demonstrated that accountability has a ripple effect — Argentina’s bold judicial action could prompt parallel developments at the International Criminal Court (ICC), potentially prompting the ICC to address fresh evidence of genocide that emerges as the Argentina case proceeds.

[...]

Even low-level government employees like elementary school teachers and nurses have been ordered to hand in their passports, to enforce “discipline.”

Only a matter of time till things start going this way. For Super Earth.

https://youtu.be/WcGJmev2718

[...]

Floods also damaged roads and vital infrastructure, cutting off more than 130 rural villages and leading to the evacuation of more than 80,000 people from their homes.

The increasing frequency of high-rainfall events in China has been linked to rising global temperatures; each degree in warming enables the atmosphere to hold 7% more moisture.

[...]

A former Macanese pro-democracy lawmaker became the first person to be arrested under the territory’s national security law, with authorities yesterday alleging that he had ties to foreign groups endangering China.

The Chinese casino hub, which has its own legal system largely based on Portuguese law, enacted national security legislation in 2009 and widened its powers in 2023, to bring it in line with similar laws in Hong Kong and China.

Macanese Judiciary Police said a 68-year-old local man surnamed Au (歐) was arrested and handed over to public prosecutors on suspicion of “establishing connections ... outside Macau to commit acts endangering national security.”

Local media identified the man as Au Kam-san (歐錦新), a primary-school teacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators before deciding not to seek re-election in 2021.

[...]

A stalwart of Macau’s tiny opposition camp, Au spent years campaigning on issues such as social welfare, corruption and electoral reform. He was one of the founders of several pro-democracy groups, including the New Macau Association.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39573959

Archived

Joint China-Russia military drills in the Sea of Japan a “forced step for the Kremlin," expert says

In August, the Chinese and Russian navies will hold their annual Maritime Interaction 2025 exercises in the Sea of Japan near Vladivostok, as well as a joint maritime patrol in the Pacific Ocean.

"For Russia, such exercises are a forced step, because they understand that China is a natural antagonist of the Russian Federation and will maintain a certain degree of cooperation with Russia only as long as it does not conflict with its own interests," says Valerii Riabyk, a military expert and development director at the information and consulting company Defense Express.

"This is also confirmed by leaked FSB documents, which describe an operation developed at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine aimed at strengthening counterintelligence measures in relations with the PRC," he says.

Riabykh added that recently such exercises have been taking place regularly.

"They plan them, and both sides need this in order to check and compare each other’s military capabilities. Some may see this as preparation for joint operations, but on the other hand, one should not exclude that such joint activities are primarily a way of probing the potential enemy's capabilities. Under the guise of partnership, they are keeping their finger on the pulse to be able to respond in time," the expert concluded.

Archived

On July 30, 2025, the Changsha Intermediate Court in [China's] Hunan Province tried human rights lawyer Xie Yang behind closed doors on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” Those charges stem from Xie Yang’s remarks online and to foreign journalists about political and legal affairs, and human rights violations, in China. Authorities convened the trial after Xie Yang had been held in pre-trial detention for over three and a half years, during which he alleged he was repeatedly tortured.

“Xie Yang did nothing other than exercise his rights to free speech as guaranteed by China’s Constitution and international law,” said Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders. “Chinese authorities compounded his wrongful detention by holding him in excessive pretrial detention, ignoring his allegations of torture, and denying him the right to a fair trial.”

The July 30 hearing was marred by numerous legal violations, including authorities failing to notify one of Xie Yang’s lawyers of the hearing, and opening the trial despite denying Xie and his other lawyer access to copy case files during the pre-trial meeting on July 28 that would be used as evidence. Authorities classified all 18 case files as confidential despite eight not bearing a “secret” classification marking. To protest these violations of his fair trial rights, Xie dismissed his lawyer, Li Guobei at the July 30 hearing. The trial has not yet concluded.

Xie Yang is a human rights lawyer who represented many human rights defenders before facing government retaliation for his work. He was detained and tortured during the government’s “709” Crackdown on human rights lawyers in 2015, an unprecedented assault on human rights lawyers and rule of law activists, and then stripped of his law license in 2020.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/39558082

Archived

Russian regulators on Wednesday banned the import and sale of trucks from several major Chinese manufacturers, citing what they called a “direct threat” to public health and safety.

The ban targets vehicles produced by Dongfeng, Foton, FAW and Sitrak, according to Rosstandart, the federal agency responsible for enforcing technical regulations and vehicle safety standards.

Inspectors cited issues including poor braking performance and faulty seatbelt mountings. Rosstandart said it has ordered the manufacturers to recall the affected vehicles and halt sales or face fines.

Dealers have reportedly suspended sales of the flagged models and are working on safety compliance plans that must be reviewed and approved by the agency, it said.

The move comes as Russia’s auto industry faces a deepening crisis. Last week, major domestic producers KAMAZ, AvtoVAZ and GAZ announced plans to shift to a four-day workweek amid falling demand.

[...]

Floods have caused extensive damage in Beijing and northern China, killing 30 people and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate.

Archived

When the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong to China in July 1997, the arrangement centered on a promise: China would govern the region with a “one country, two systems” approach that preserved much of Hong Kong’s autonomy and capitalist practices, at least for the next 50 years.

Barely halfway to that 2047 benchmark, however, Beijing is dismantling its pledge to Hong Kong and the world. Once “the pearl of the Orient,” the global financial hub’s appeal to many of its 7.2 million residents, investors and others has declined precipitously, especially since China invoked a national security law in 2020. Hong Kongers have immigrated to the U.K. and elsewhere. Companies and investors have soured on the region’s prospects and opened businesses in other financial centers such as Singapore and Tokyo.

[...]

Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leaders passed legislation in March 2024 expanding the security law [imposed in 2019] and solidifying China’s rule. Local leaders and China’s National People’s Congress now must approve government directives.

Such moves were not envisioned under the agreement that preceded the handover of Hong Kong after 156 years as a U.K. colony. Intended as Hong Kong’s mini-constitution for the subsequent half-century, it said China would provide for the region’s diplomacy and defense while protecting freedoms of assembly, expression, the press and religion.

[...]

In the most recent move, Hong Kong public universities were required to sign new accountability agreement to align with China's Xi Jinping's remarks, according to Hong Kong-based media outlet HKFP.

According to the new agreement, universities “should also strive to follow the advice and guidance of the Central Government on the future of Hong Kong [...] and observe President Xi Jinping’s remark [...]

The new agreement instructed universities to strengthen education on China’s Constitution, Hong Kong’s Basic Law, and the national security law, HKFP reported.

[...]

Archived

• Once China's top property developer Evergrande faces Hong Kong delisting
• Delisting will come after 18-month trading suspension
• Property crisis continues to weigh heavily on China's economy
• Developers debt revamp talks delayed due to lack of recovery
• New defaults and more restructuring rounds expected - advisers

China Evergrande Group looks set to be kicked off the Hong Kong exchange next month after failing to revamp its debt and being pushed into liquidation, with the stubbornly weak Chinese property sector clouding the outlook for debt restructuring by its peers.

China's property market, once a key growth driver for the world's second-largest economy, has been in a multi-year tailspin despite repeated government attempts to revive weak consumer demand.

[...]

The liquidation order came after it failed to provide a viable restructuring plan for its $23 billion offshore debt.

[...]

With Chinese new home prices falling at the fastest pace in 8 months in June, even developers who have completed first round debt revamps are weighing fresh negotiations and those that have not defaulted are also contemplating such a move to slash debt, financial advisers said.

"There's no light at the end of the tunnel," said Glen Ho, national turnaround & restructuring leader at Deloitte, referring to the property market.

"Companies want to delay their restructuring effective date and use time to exchange for more breathing room, but they cannot create new funds out of nothing."

More than $140 billion, or more than 70%, of China property dollar bonds have defaulted since 2021, according to investment platform FSMOne Hong Kong, and the majority of them are still in various stages of being restructured.

[...]

Property construction in China is expected to decline another 30% by 2035 due to structural changes in demand, ANZ analysts said in a June report, which could cast a long shadow over debt restructuring efforts in the near to medium term.

Private developer Country Garden, which defaulted on $14 billion offshore debt in 2023, is still trying to get its lenders' approval on its debt restructuring proposal before the next liquidation hearing on August 11.

Other developers including KWG and Agile have yet to announce detailed restructuring proposals after having started the process in 2023 and 2024, respectively, soon after defaulting on their repayment obligations.

[...]

China's property sector accounted for about a quarter of the country's economic activity before it collapsed.

But despite repeated attempts by authorities to stabilise the market, property investment in China declined 11.2% in the first half of this year from a year earlier, while property sales by floor area fell 3.5% and new construction starts dropped 20%.

[...]

Most of the population of China cannot afford or obtain a VPN (Virtual Private Network). For the privileged portion who do manage to purchase and install a VPN, does that solve their global internet access problem?

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.