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Source: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/feed

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<title>Words of the Week: “Weak Spot” (软肋, ruǎn lèi)</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/words-of-the-week-weak-spot-%e8%bd%af%e8%82%8b-ruan-lei/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2024 02:31:54 +0000</pubDate>
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<description><![CDATA[On Chinese social media, the phrase “weak spot” (软肋, ruǎn lèi) is often used metaphorically to refer to family members—particularly children—used as leverage by public security, state security, or government authorities to prevent individuals from speaking out, engaging in activism, or pursuing other activities that the authorities do not approve of. In the past, the […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[On Chinese social media, the phrase “weak spot” (<a href="https://20.chinadigitaltimes.net/3525.html">软肋, ruǎn lèi</a>) is often used metaphorically to refer to family members—particularly children—used as leverage by public security, state security, or government authorities to prevent individuals from speaking out, engaging in activism, or pursuing other activities that the authorities do not approve of. In the past, the tactic was mainly used by state security forces against <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/09/china-targets-family-friends-coerce-activists/">higher-profile activists</a> and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/09/dont-return-sydney-student-told-fathers-disappearance/">dissidents</a> in China, but in recent years, it seems to have filtered down to local public security bureaus, and is being used against people suspected of all manner of minor “transgressions,” including posting comments critical of local authorities on Chinese or overseas social media. It is also sometimes used as a tool of transnational repression, such as in the recent case of popular X (formerly Twitter) blogger <a href="https://x.com/whyyoutouzhele">Teacher Li is not your teacher</a>, who lives in Italy but <a href="https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/teacher-li-full-transnational-repression-story">whose family has been threatened</a>.
The term “weak spot” recently surfaced in relation to a consumer backlash against sudden spikes in natural gas usage after new “smart” gas meters were installed in a number of cities. Consumers hit with exorbitant gas bills began posting their bills online, leading to an official investigation, the sacking of the head of Chongqing Gas Group, and the promise of refunds to affected consumers. <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/natural-gas-billing-spikes-fuel-consumer-backlash-investigations-in-sichuan-and-other-provinces/">A woman in Kunshan, Jiangsu province</a>, who posted her gas bill online later received a <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707188.html">threatening visit from the local police</a>, demanding to know where her children attended school, where her husband worked, and other personal information about the family. The <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707182.html">police later contacted her husband’s supervisor at work</a>, in a further show of force. A WeChat article by <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/%E7%8A%AF%E7%8A%AF%E4%B9%8B%E8%B0%88">current-affairs blogger Fan Dang</a> discussed <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707188.html">three tactics used by law enforcement to intimidate the woman into silence</a>: (1) engaging in “threats and intimidation” (恐吓, kǒnghè), (2) leveraging her family as “weak spots” (软肋, ruǎnlèi), and (3) repressing freedom of speech under the guise of “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/tales-of-anti-fraud-center-overreach-freezing-your-bank-cards-for-your-own-good/">fraud-prevention</a>” (反诈, fǎn zhà).
“Weak spot” is also included as one of the 104 entries in our recent ebook, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/12/lexicon-20th-anniversary-edition/">China Digital Times Lexicon: 20th Anniversary Edition</a>. The full entry is reproduced below.
weak spot (<a href="https://20.chinadigitaltimes.net/3525.html">软肋</a>, ruǎn lèi)
Used metaphorically—much like “soft underbelly” or “Achilles’ heel”—to refer to someone or something that can be used as leverage against people, particularly those considered “troublesome” by the police or government authorities. 
The term gained popularity in November 2022, after a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S68AnrHElRA&ab_channel=404%E8%B5%84%E6%96%99%E9%A6%86">viral video</a> revealed neighborhood committee members from Tiantongyuan, a vast suburb near Beijing, discussing how to <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/%E8%BD%AF%E8%82%8B">intimidate local residents to enforce compliance</a> during the COVID lockdown. Smiling as they discuss a certain local “troublemaker,” the committee members talk about “locking him up in a dark place for three days” and gleefully brainstorm ways to cow the man by threatening retaliation against his son. One says pointedly, “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/690140.html">His son is his weak spot</a>.”
Online reaction was swift and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/690140.html">overwhelmingly negative</a>. Horrified viewers commented that the short video was “scarier than the scariest horror film,” and it soon became known as the “weak-spot video” and “the meeting of ghouls.” (Specifically, the committee members were being compared to a type of ghoul known as a <a href="https://dictionary.writtenchinese.com/worddetail/changgui/6578/2/1">chāngguǐ</a> 伥鬼: the ghost of someone eaten by a tiger, who then helps the tiger to devour others.) The video was later deleted from multiple platforms including Weibo, where it garnered many critical comments evoking the pessimistic “last generation” sentiment (see entry) that arose during Shanghai’s repressive COVID lockdown: “It turns out the reason [the government] wants people to have kids is to use them as leverage against their parents.” “Fuck, and they expect us to keep giving birth to little hostages?” “Oh, my son has no future? No thank you, then, I won’t be giving birth to a child for you to persecute.” In December 2022, after the release of the film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1630029/">Avatar: The Way of Water</a>,” there was some online discussion about the “weak point” discussed by neighborhood committee members, as it related to <a href="https://weibo.com/5946063701/MloYO5DVK">this line about family, spoken by protagonist Jack Sully</a>: “Sullys stick together. <a href="https://screenrant.com/avatar-the-way-of-water-movie-best-quotes/">It was our greatest weakness and our great strength.</a>”
In July 2023, after a school gymnasium collapse <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/07/grief-anger-over-11-deaths-in-qiqihar-school-roof-collapse/">killed ten members of a girls’ volleyball team</a> and their coach in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, local officials <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/07/mourning-displays-censored-grieving-families-pressured-in-wake-of-qiqihar-gymnasium-collapse/">pressured the grieving parents into signing away their rights</a> before they could even view the bodies of their daughters. It was a particularly egregious example of authorities exploiting parental “weak spots” to ensure that they did not kick up a fuss or make too many demands. “Even though the kids have died, [officials] are still using them to put the squeeze on the parents,” complained one Weibo commenter. A May 2023 article by WeChat blogger Xiang Dongliang explored the various ways that <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/07/translation-chinas-overburdened-teachers-pressed-into-service-as-online-commenters-and-grassroots-policy-enforcers/">teachers were roped into becoming grassroots policy enforcers</a>, including leveraging children as “weak spots” to enforce parental compliance with COVID controls during the pandemic.
The flip side to this term can be found in a 2020 essay by retired Peking University sociology professor Zheng Yefu, who argues that the CCP’s emphasis on “maintaining social stability” is undermining China’s social cohesion. As evidence, he points to the telling trend of the <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2018/05/17/why-many-rich-chinese-dont-live-in-china">children of political elites increasingly choosing to settle abroad</a>. “Only striking them where they are vulnerable will wake them up,” he writes. “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/08/zheng-yefu-for-whom-is-the-country-being-defended/">Their weak spot is their offspring.</a> They can suppress the subjects of the kingdom, but cannot control the rational choice of their own legitimate descendents to integrate with the world and have a civilized life.”
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<title>Photo: Evening Post, by blake.thornberry</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/photo-evening-post-by-blake-thornberry/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2024 02:26:15 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Main Photo]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699289</guid>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_699290" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-699290" class="size-full wp-image-699290" src="http://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Evening-Post-by-blake.thornberry-e1714789477720.jpg" alt="A man dressed in a blue and white checked shirt, khaki slacks, blue socks, and a pair of black tennis shoes crosses his legs casually as he pursues a newspaper while relaxing in a wood and metal folding chair on a narrow sidewalk along a Shanghai alleyway." width="600" height="402" />Evening Post, by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/91657289@N02/8958401681/">blake.thornberry (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)</a></div>
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<title>Natural Gas Billing Spikes Fuel Consumer Backlash, Investigations in Sichuan and Beyond</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/natural-gas-billing-spikes-fuel-consumer-backlash-investigations-in-sichuan-and-other-provinces/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2024 01:42:46 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CDT Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chengdu]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chongqing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[consumers]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[energy policy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[energy prices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[fiscal budget]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[fraud]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[inflation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Jiangsu]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[local government]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[natural gas]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[online activism]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[online public opinion]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[police]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[public opinion]]></category>
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<category><![CDATA[state-owned enterprises]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699273</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In recent weeks, residents of the cities of Chongqing and Chengdu have been posting screenshots of their natural gas bills online and complaining of mysterious gas consumption spikes since the installation of new “smart” gas meters. Some consumers reported that their gas bills were hundreds or even thousands of yuan higher than during the same […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[In recent weeks, residents of the cities of Chongqing and Chengdu have been <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/706934.html">posting screenshots of their natural gas bills</a> online and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707133.html">complaining of mysterious gas consumption spikes since the installation of new “smart” gas meters</a>. Some consumers reported that their gas bills were hundreds or even thousands of yuan higher than during the same period last year—and the differences appeared to be due to purported usage increases, not per-unit price rises. One elderly woman living alone in Chengdu received a bill for the staggering sum of <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707111.html">15,000 yuan (approximately $2070 U.S. dollars) for just four months of natural gas usage</a>. Videos posted to social media also showed some of the new meters running unusually fast, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707066.html">even in vacant houses</a> in which the gas had been turned off.
The topic quickly attracted nationwide attention. The <a href="https://yuqing.rednet.cn/">Rednet Public Opinion Center</a>, which tracks public opinion and online engagement, reported that as of April 16, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707162.html">the topic had racked up 219 million online interactions and 6.16 billion impressions</a> on Chinese social media platforms. In Chongqing alone, as many as 26,000 residents complained to the local utility and local authorities about their gas bills. Chengdu’s local utility initially responded to consumer complaints by claiming that observations of rising gas prices were likely based on “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707092.html">mistaken perceptions</a>.”
Amidst the glare of public controversy and an unusually high number of consumer complaints, local authorities in Chongqing opened an investigation into the billing increases. Less than a week later, at a press conference on April 19, Chongqing authorities announced that <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202404/1310937.shtml">Che Dechen, Chongqing Gas Group’s general manager and Party secretary, had been removed from his post</a>, and that Chongqing Gas and other local gas companies had indeed been overcharging their customers. The investigation identified mismanagement as well as billing mistakes, chaotic billing cycles, disorganized work in changing gas meters, insufficient staffing, and a lack of internal supervision and management, but insisted that there was no manipulation of or mechanical issues with the city’s newly installed gas meters. Chongqing Gas Group promised to refund all of the excessive gas fees, but <a href="https://epaper.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202404/22/WS6625ae31a310df4030f51045.html">many questions remain</a>, including when the refunds will be processed, exactly how the “meter-reading mistakes” occurred, why government oversight failed to identify such large-scale overcharging, and whether local authorities are objective enough to be put in charge of the investigation. Soon after that press conference, market regulators in Chengdu <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202404/22/WS66259d13a31082fc043c31a1.html">opened an investigation into that city’s natural gas monopoly, Chengdu Gas Group</a>, for violations including chaotic billing and fee collection systems, randomly altered billing cycles, and the practice of charging for estimated, instead of actual, usage amounts. Investigative reporting by Chinese media outlet Yicai revealed that both Chongqing Gas and Chengdu Gas have the same major shareholder, China Resources Gas Group, and have <a href="https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/chengdu-gas-is-latest-utility-firm-to-fall-foul-of-chinas-regulators-over-arbitrary-price-hikes">logged record profits over the last year</a>. A recent post on X/formerly Twitter (below) notes 1182 cases of overcharges by Chongqing Gas, for a total of over 2.85 million yuan, with some residents still awaiting refunds:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
近日，重庆燃气表示，据统计多计多收气费1182件，涉及金额2858545.83元，公司已全部清退处置完毕。但有市民表示没有收到退费。 <a href="https://t.co/PJtCMoto9p">https://t.co/PJtCMoto9p</a> <a href="https://t.co/8A7fQCmYY9">pic.twitter.com/8A7fQCmYY9</a>
— 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) <a href="https://twitter.com/whyyoutouzhele/status/1785986309766427132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On Chinese social media, commenters likened the unexpectedly high gas bills to “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707107.html">home invasion robbery</a>” (入室抢劫, rùshì qiǎngjié), dubbed the Chongqing and Chengdu gas monopolies “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707162.html">natural-gas assassins</a>” (燃气刺客, ránqì cìkè), and complained that local state-owned energy monopolies wield “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707130.html">too much arbitrary power</a>” (权力太任性, quánlì tài rènxìng). Bloggers, journalists, and ordinary netizens alike have complained that the gas meter controversy has <a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2024-04-25/commentary-citys-gas-debacle-shows-how-government-credibility-is-fragile-102190081.html">undermined public trust</a> in both <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707166.html">local utilities and local governments</a>. Suspicions also abound that cash-strapped local governments and under-subsidized utility companies are now <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707225.html">attempting to raise revenue</a> by finding roundabout ways to increase gas, water, and electricity prices for consumers. (A <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-policy-reform-end-losses-city-gas-firms-household-sales-2023-07-26/">2023 policy change</a> by China’s National Development and Reform Commission allowed municipal gas companies to raise prices for residential consumers for the first time, after years of selling at a loss.)
The social media attention and subsequent investigations have attracted attention elsewhere, spurring residents of Anhui, Henan, Shanxi, Jiangsu, and other provinces to take a closer look at their recent natural gas bills, particularly in areas where new gas meters were recently installed. A woman in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, who posted her gas bill online later received a <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707188.html">threatening visit from the police</a>, demanding to know where her children attended school, where her husband worked, and other personal information about the family. The <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707182.html">police later contacted her husband’s supervisor at work</a>, in a further show of intimidation. A WeChat article by <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/%E7%8A%AF%E7%8A%AF%E4%B9%8B%E8%B0%88">current-affairs blogger Fan Dang</a> dissected <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707188.html">three tactics used by law enforcement to intimidate the woman from Kunshan into silence</a>: (1) engaging in “threats and intimidation” (恐吓, kǒnghè), (2) leveraging her family as “weak spots” (软肋, ruǎnlèi), and (3) repressing freedom of speech under the guise of “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/tales-of-anti-fraud-center-overreach-freezing-your-bank-cards-for-your-own-good/">fraud-prevention</a>” (反诈, fǎn zhà). (For more information about “weak spot” and other terms, please see <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/12/lexicon-20th-anniversary-edition/">CDT’s latest ebook lexicon</a>.)
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<title>Quote of the Day: “People Are Working ‘996’ Schedules for 12 Days Straight, in Exchange for a Five-Day Holiday Celebrating the Advent of an ‘Eight-Hour’ Workday”</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/quote-of-the-day-people-are-working-996-schedules-for-12-days-straight-in-exchange-for-a-five-day-holiday-celebrating-the-advent-of-an-eight-hour-workday/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 05:41:18 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CDT Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Translation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[996]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[college graduate joblessness]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[employment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[entrepreneurs]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[golden week]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[government policy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[graduates]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[holidays]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[labor conditions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[netizen comments]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[online public opinion]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[overtime]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[positive energy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[quote of the day]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[translation excerpt]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[unemployment]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[workers]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[workers' rights]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699248</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Today’s CDT Quote of the Day is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (调休, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Today’s <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707466.html">CDT Quote of the Day</a> is a response to the recent tide of online public discussion about the new “adjusted leave” (<a href="https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%B0%83%E4%BC%91/3629552">调休</a>, tiáoxiū) holiday schedule that has lengthened certain Chinese public holidays, while at the same time requiring many workers to toil on Saturdays or Sundays before and after each holiday to “make up for” the additional time off.
<blockquote>“People are working ‘996’ schedules for 12 days straight, in exchange for a five-day holiday celebrating the advent of an ‘eight-hour’ workday.”
— Weibo user 一梦太古 (yī mèng tàigǔ), noting that many workers have had to juggle “996” schedules (twelve-hour days, six days a week, including Saturdays), in order to make up for the new, longer holiday periods—including the Qingming Festival in April and the current May 1 Labor Day holiday. [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707466.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
A <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/706892.html">recent essay from WeChat account 冰川思想库 (Bīngchuān Sīxiǎngkù, “Glacier Think Tank”)</a> discussed the disconnect between the Chinese government’s rosy plan to stimulate consumption by extending holiday periods on one hand, and the increasing burdens being placed on an already overworked labor force on the other:
<blockquote>There is a widening gap between official narratives about the “holiday economy” and the lived experiences of workers.
The fundamental reason for this is that there’s a finite number of vacation days per year. The “adjusted leave” holiday schedule is essentially a numbers game that involves shuffling around this limited stock of time off. [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/706892.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
CNN’s Chris Lau and Hassan Tayir reported on some of the reasons why <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/30/economy/china-labor-day-economic-slump-reactions-intl-hnk/index.html">“Labor Day isn’t the holiday it once was for China’s workers,” because public holidays now come “with strings attached”</a>:
<blockquote>In recent weeks, complaints about this year’s Labor Day leave arrangements have exploded on Chinese social media. Many have slammed the government for prioritizing business over something they desperately need, which is an actual break.
People have been venting their frustration under the hashtags “you should not pretend not to hear voices opposing the tiaoxiu policy” and “tiaoxiu policy for May Day,” which have collectively drawn more than 560 million views combined.
One user wrote the online discussion was not merely a policy debate, it’s an embodiment of “physical and mental exhaustion caused by crazy overtime work.”
[…] “Workers are forced to work harder, afraid of losing jobs and at the same time afraid of whether finding another job is going to offer them better pay,” [said Christian Yao, a senior lecturer at the University of Wellington].
[…] With the policy, China is able to designate more than 25 days as official holidays. Without the maneuvering though, workers get 11 days, which is still in line with many other countries. The United States, for instance, offers 11 federal holidays while the United Kingdom has eight days.
But the problem for Chinese workers is that their statutory paid time off (PTO), or annual leave, is just five days a year, which is much less than many other countries. [<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/30/economy/china-labor-day-economic-slump-reactions-intl-hnk/index.html">Source</a>]</blockquote>
China’s five-day entitlement does climb to 10 days after 10 years of employment, and then to 15 after 20. The minimum in the U.K. is 28 days including official holidays. The U.S. has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country">no statutory minimum at all</a>.
In late April, there was a burst of vigorous online debate over “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240419185154/https://www.sohu.com/a/772539688_120094090">You Can’t Pretend Not to Hear the Voices Opposing the New ‘Adjusted Leave’ Holiday Schedule</a>,” an opinion piece by Zhang Heng of Top News (<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/%E9%A1%B6%E7%AB%AF%E6%96%B0%E9%97%BB">顶端新闻</a>, Dǐngduān Xīnwén, a Henan Daily-backed publication). Related hashtags attracted <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/30/economy/china-labor-day-economic-slump-reactions-intl-hnk/index.html">560 million views on Weibo</a>, and topped hot search lists on the Weibo, Baidu, and Toutiao platforms. CDT Chinese editors have <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707060.html">archived the full opinion piece, along with some online responses complaining about the “misleading” new holiday periods</a>:
<blockquote>张三同学: I haven’t seen such clear-cut commentary for a long time. Whether it is useful or not is a separate issue. Daring to speak out in your own voice is exactly what the news media should be doing, instead of remaining silent or practicing tai chi or whatever it is they do.
三国法陆寰: Time and again, people vent the same frustrations, and [the government] turns a deaf ear and makes the same “adjustments.”
黑白小杜卡: Year after year, people call for abolishing the “adjusted leave” policy, just like they call for passing the “Anti-Cruelty and Animal Protection Law.” Since when has the government ever listened to the online vox populi? And yet they managed to pass the [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/01/translation-the-first-woman-to-die-by-the-divorce-cooling-off-period/">tremendously unpopular</a>] “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/03/divorce-restrictions-endanger-women-as-leaders-focus-on-demographic-crisis/">mandatory 30-day cooling-off period</a>” for divorces pretty quickly, didn’t they?
猫咪KEN: It’s outrageous to count Saturdays and Sundays as part of a public holiday. Why can’t they just come out and admit that we only get one day off for the May 1 Labor Day holiday? [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707060.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
In other Labor Day news, WeChat account <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/%E9%BA%A6%E6%9D%B0%E9%80%8A">我是麦杰逊</a> (Wǒ shì Màijiéxùn) published a masterful dubunking of a dubious “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/positive-energy/">positive energy</a>” story—heavily promoted online—about a young college graduate from Anhui who struck it rich by lowering his expectations and staying humble. Xu Yuning, the entrepreneur in question, supposedly parlayed a modest investment of 3,800 yuan in a business selling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaobing">shaobing</a> (stuffed flatbread) in Hangzhou into a turnover of 1.1 million yuan within the first year. The WeChat article debunked the feel-good story by calculating that Xu, working nonstop all year round, would have to sell about one shaobing per minute to make that sort of profit. The author also included screenshots showing that Xu’s reportedly bustling first shop only has six online reviews, casting doubt on his sales figures, and revealing that Xu registered his business eight years ago, rather than four years ago, as the feel-good story claimed.
Xu’s tale is typical of “positive energy” stories that make the rounds online when Chinese government propagandists or state media seek to<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/07/unemployed-youth-skeptical-that-red-flag-canal-spirit-will-alleviate-their-woes/"> distract from the reality of high unemployment among China’s college graduates</a>. The unemployment statistics for that cohort were so alarming that, for a time, the Chinese government simply <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/08/netizen-voices-if-the-data-isnt-good-then-theres-no-data/">stopped publishing the data</a>. (It has since <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/china-reports-steady-youth-unemployment-as-data-paints-mixed-economic-picture-016a0e48">resumed</a> publishing them, using a slightly different metric.) The <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/03/words-of-the-week-kong-yiji-literature-%E5%AD%94%E4%B9%99%E5%B7%B1%E6%96%87%E5%AD%A6-kong-yiji-wenxue/">self-deprecating “impoverished scholar Kong Yiji” meme</a> that arose among unemployed and underemployed college grads has also been <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/03/censors-delete-viral-kong-yiji-literature-anthem/">targeted for erasure by censors</a> on a <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/04/censors-delete-essay-that-blames-xi-jinping-for-poverty-of-kong-yiji/">number</a> of different occasions. For more on this and other expressions of economic angst, see our recent “<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china-digital-times-ebooks/">China Digital Times Lexicon</a>” ebook.
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<title>Lawyers Celebrate Justice Ministry Corruption Scandals With Black Humor</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/lawyers-celebrate-justice-ministry-corruption-scandals-with-black-humor/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alexander Boyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 04:45:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CDT Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[corruption]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Fu Zhenghua]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[judicial corruption]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[lawyers]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ministry of Justice]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Sun Lijun]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699245</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The latest corruption investigation into a senior Ministry of Justice official has inspired schadenfreude among lawyers in China. The investigation into Liu Zhiqiang, a former Vice-Minister of Justice, follows closely after another launched against Tang Yijun, the former head of the ministry. In 2017, long-time Justice Minister Wu Aiying was expelled from the Party for […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The latest corruption investigation into a senior Ministry of Justice official has inspired schadenfreude among lawyers in China. The investigation into Liu Zhiqiang, a former Vice-Minister of Justice, follows closely after <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3257603/chinas-former-justice-minister-tang-yijun-facing-corruption-probe-top-anti-graft-agency-says">another launched against Tang Yijun</a>, the former head of the ministry. In 2017, long-time Justice Minister <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1CK02Z/">Wu Aiying was expelled from the Party for graft</a>. In 2022, Fu Zhenghua, who headed the Ministry of Justice between 2018 and 2020, also fell in a corruption investigation—and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/10/political-clique-purged-from-state-security-apparatus-ahead-of-party-congress/">was later accused of being part of a “political clique” opposed to Xi Jinping</a>. At The South China Morning Post, Sylvie Zhuang reported on <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3260896/china-declares-probe-another-former-justice-official-liu-zhiqiang-who-was-vice-minister-and-interpol">the cryptic announcement that Liu is under investigation for corruption</a>:
<blockquote>Beijing’s former vice-justice minister Liu Zhiqiang, who once served on the committee of <a href="https://www.scmp.com/topics/interpol?module=inline&pgtype=article">Interpol</a>, is under investigation in China, according to the country’s top <a href="https://www.scmp.com/topics/xi-jinpings-anti-corruption-campaign?module=inline&pgtype=article">anti-graft</a> agency.
 
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection published a brief statement on its website on Tuesday saying Liu, 60, was “undergoing disciplinary review and supervisory investigation” and was “suspected of serious violations of discipline and law” – a euphemism for corruption. 
 
[…] Liu’s tenure at the Justice Ministry also overlapped with that of <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3193415/former-chinese-justice-minister-fu-zhenghua-jailed-life?module=inline&pgtype=article">Fu Zhenghua</a>, China’s justice minister from 2018 to 2020, who was charged with corruption in 2021 and jailed for life in 2022 for making 117 million yuan (US$16 million) in illicit gains in crimes that include bribery. Fu was also once China’s most powerful police chief. [<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3260896/china-declares-probe-another-former-justice-official-liu-zhiqiang-who-was-vice-minister-and-interpol">Source</a>]</blockquote>
The investigation into Liu has inspired a considerable amount of black humor in China’s legal community. Liu had given a number of talks to legal associations about fighting corruption. <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707441.html">In an article posted to WeChat</a>, one lawyer recalled Liu railing against corruption: “Looking back at Liu Zhiqiang’s speech, it was a naked farce of ‘corrupt cadres criticizing corruption.’ What’s more, it laid out the tortured logic of the whole drama. You gotta hand it to him!” In the same article, the author shared a screenshot of a WeChat Moment, translated below:
<blockquote><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium" src="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/files/2024/04/post-707441-66317f7b04565.png" alt="A screenshot of a lawyer's WeChat Moment showing signed copies of licenses to practice law. " width="609" height="563" />
In our team chat, we just created a collage of the [officials’] signatures on our licenses to practice law. Soon we’ll have a complete set. There is an atmosphere of optimism throughout the office. [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707441.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
The screenshot shows the signatures of Wu Aiying, Fu Zhenghua, and Tang Yijun—the aforementioned Ministry of Justice officials, all of whom have been convicted of corruption or are currently under investigation for corruption. The line about “optimism” is a sarcastic reference to<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/02/anxious-chinese-investors-stick-their-necks-out-under-u-s-embassy-giraffe-post/"> a now-censored hashtag hailing China’s economic growth, originally posted to Weibo by state news agency Xinhua</a>.
Xi Jinping’s signature anti-corruption campaign remains in full swing. A documentary on graft released in January focused on <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/02/messi-mess-highlights-fragile-psyche-of-hong-kong-and-mainland-chinese-nationalists/">corruption in China’s soccer</a> and<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/11/business/china-pboc-governor-corruption-hnk-intl/index.html"> financial sectors</a>, as well as within <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3247576/chinas-jilin-city-giant-billboard-stands-monument-how-corrupt-officials-fall">local governments</a>. State media has <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202401/1305085.shtml">asserted that</a> this year’s anti-graft docuseries “hints at [a] more potent anti-graft campaign in 2024.” Despite the seemingly political nature of many of China’s corruption prosecutions, China has<a href="https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/chinas-war-corruption-turns-into-high-wire-act-2024-01-18/"> made meaningful progress in fighting corruption</a> according to many international indices.
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<title>Photo: Untitled (Migrant Workers Washing Windows in Beijing), by Crozet M. / ILO</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/photo-untitled-migrant-workers-washing-windows-in-beijing-by-crozet-m-ilo/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2024 01:46:32 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Main Photo]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699255</guid>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_699256" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-699256" class="size-full wp-image-699256" src="http://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Untitled-Migrant-Workers-Washing-Windows-in-Beijing-by-Crozet-M.ILO_-e1714700652513.jpg" alt="Four blue-shirted workers, wearing harnesses attached to long ropes, wash the windows of a multi-story building in Beijing." width="600" height="398" />Untitled (Migrant Workers Washing Windows in Beijing), by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilopictures/49846482257/">Crozet M. / ILO (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)</a></div>
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<title>Chinese Support for Russia’s War in Ukraine Deepens Friction With U.S., E.U.</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/05/chinese-support-for-russias-war-in-ukraine-deepens-friction-with-u-s-e-u/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arthur Kaufman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 07:02:42 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[China & the World]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[armed conflict]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chinese companies]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Cold War]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[economic influence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Europe relations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[european union]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[global economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[global trade]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[international law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[international relations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Russia]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Russia relations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[sanctions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[trade sanction]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[U.S. sanctions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[ukraine]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699238</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Over 26 months have passed since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine. The current stalemate has given way to gradual advances by Russia, as political support for arming Ukraine waned in Western capitals, at least until a breakthrough U.S. funding bill last week. To counteract this inertia, Western leaders have increased pressure on one of Russia’s […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Over 26 months have passed since <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/russia/">Russia</a>’s latest invasion of Ukraine. The current stalemate has given way to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/28/europe/russia-daily-gains-ukraine-military-criticism-intl/index.html">gradual advances</a> by Russia, as political support for arming Ukraine waned in Western capitals, at least until a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/us/politics/biden-ukraine-israel-aid.html">breakthrough U.S. funding bill last week</a>. To counteract this inertia, Western leaders have increased pressure on <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/01/xi-maintains-close-ties-with-russia-as-war-in-ukraine-enters-a-new-year/">one of Russia’s main backers</a>: China. A growing number of officials have publicly called out <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/12/china-and-russia-reap-rewards-of-growing-partnership/">Chinese support for Russia’s war machine</a> and threatened punishment as deterrence. However, it is unclear whether Chinese actors will ultimately change course.
The E.U. has been <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/chinas-silence-on-ukraine-and-europes-resolve-could-remake-sino-eu-relations/">worried about China’s potential complicity</a> since the beginning of Russia’s war. In the South China Morning Post, Finbarr Bermingham reported that now the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3260446/eu-tell-beijing-envoys-plan-blacklist-more-chinese-businesses-supplying-russia">E.U. has planned on blacklisting more Chinese businesses for breaching sanctions on Russia</a>:
<blockquote>European Union officials plan to inform Chinese diplomats on Friday about the intent to add more Chinese companies to a blacklist because they had helped Russia evade EU sanctions.
The Chinese companies stand accused of buying European-made goods that are not permitted to be sold to Russia, then exporting them to Russian military buyers.
The aim of the meeting is to enlist Beijing’s help in closing the loopholes, people familiar with the planning said.
Previous consultations like this have resulted in the removal of Chinese firms from a draft blacklist before it got published, after Beijing committed to stopping the trade. [<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3260446/eu-tell-beijing-envoys-plan-blacklist-more-chinese-businesses-supplying-russia">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg used unusually harsh words to warn China against supporting Russia’s war. He added, “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china-must-stop-aiding-russia-if-it-seeks-good-relations-with-west-nato-says-2024-04-25/">They cannot have it both ways</a>,” referencing China’s desire to maintain good relations with both the West and Russia. At the end of his recent trip to Beijing, as Phelim Kine at Politico reported, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/26/blinken-beijing-russia-sanctions-00154556">U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken threatened additional punishments if China continued to export materials that allow Russia to rebuild its industrial base</a>:
<blockquote>Chinese state-owned firms are providing key components for Russia’s defense industrial base, including microelectronics and machine tools that have “a material effect against Ukraine” and constitute “a growing threat that Russia poses to countries in Europe,” Blinken told reporters in a press briefing in Beijing on Friday.
Blinken said that, in his meetings with China’s leader Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, he made clear that the Biden administration is running out of patience with Beijing’s refusal to stop that support.
“We’re looking at the actions that we’re fully prepared to take if we don’t see a change … we’ve already imposed sanctions on more than 100 Chinese entities, export controls and we’re fully prepared to take additional measures,” Blinken said. [<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/26/blinken-beijing-russia-sanctions-00154556">Source</a>]</blockquote>
These threats have led to some skeptical reactions in China. Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, worried that the U.S. would continuously “raise the bar” on what it considers support for Russia’s war beyond lethal aid to areas Beijing considers “normal” trade. “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/25/blinken-china-wang-yi-beijing/">It will be an endless process</a>,” he told the Washington Post, adding, “If this time we bow to Blinken’s request to stop financial transactions, but the war continues and Ukraine keeps losing ground, then the U.S. will say ‘China, you should stop doing something else.’”
Chinese actors are already adapting to Western threats of retaliation. Reuters reported that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/china-firms-go-underground-russia-payments-banks-pull-back-2024-04-28/">while Chinese banks are throttling payments for Sino-Russian transactions, some Chinese firms have gone “underground” to continue their operations</a>:
<blockquote>Now the threat of extending these [American sanctions against Russia] to banks in China – a country Washington blames for “powering” Moscow’s war effort – is chilling the finance that lubricates even non-military trade from China to Russia.
This is posing a growing problem for small Chinese exporters, said seven trading and banking sources familiar with the situation.
As China’s big banks pull back from financing Russia-related transactions, some Chinese companies are turning to small banks on the border and underground financing channels such as money brokers – even banned cryptocurrency – the sources told Reuters.
Others have retreated entirely from the Russian market, the sources said.
“You simply cannot do business properly using the official channels,” Wang said, as big banks now take months rather than days to clear payments from Russia, forcing him to tap unorthodox payment channels or shrink his business. [<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/china-firms-go-underground-russia-payments-banks-pull-back-2024-04-28/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Despite the external pressure, “<a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2024/04/25/chinas-ties-with-russia-are-growing-more-solid">China’s ties with Russia are growing more solid</a>,” The Economist wrote last week. On Friday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun met with his Russian counterpart to <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3260584/chinese-and-russian-defence-ministers-reaffirm-close-bilateral-ties">reaffirm the importance of close bilateral ties</a>: “In a volatile international environment, it is particularly important that the relations between our armed forces maintain a high dynamic and respond to the trends of the times. Our interaction is important for strategic stability on the planet.” In May, Vladimir <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-putin-visit-china-may-sources-2024-03-19/">Putin is expected to travel to China</a> for talks with Xi Jinping.
Part of China’s covert support to Russia, according to U.S. officials, includes <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-06/china-is-providing-geospatial-intelligence-to-russia-us-warns">geospatial intelligence for military purposes</a>, along with microelectronics and machine tools for tanks. In April, Kylie Atwood at CNN provided more <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/12/politics/china-russia-support-weapons-manufacturing/index.html">details about the nature of Chinese support for Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine</a>:
<blockquote>The support China is providing includes significant quantities of machine tools, drone and turbojet engines and technology for cruise missiles, microelectronics, and nitrocellulose, which Russia uses to make propellant for weapons, said the officials.
Chinese and Russian entitles have also been working jointly to produce drones inside of Russia, one of the officials said.
[…] As a demonstration of this deepening China-Russia partnership: in 2023, 90% of Russia’s micro-electronics imports came from China, which Russia has used to produce missiles, tanks, and aircraft, a second official said.
And Russia’s rapidly expanding production of artillery rounds is due, in large part, to the nitrocellulose coming from China, officials said. This comes as Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, CNN reported earlier this year. [<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/12/politics/china-russia-support-weapons-manufacturing/index.html">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Last week, David Brennan and Yevgeny Kuklychev at Newsweek reported on <a href="http://newsweek.com/china-us-sanctions-deals-russia-electronics-military-1893676">various Chinese companies that have flouted U.S. sanctions in order to pursue business deals in Russia</a>:
<blockquote>The ExpoElectronica conference is a prime annual opportunity for Russia’s most advanced tech companies to make deals with the country’s decision-makers; including those in the powerful security and military sectors.
But as they assembled in Moscow earlier this month for the 2024 installment, Russia’s tech leaders—represented by 369 companies—were almost outnumbered by 348 Chinese counterparts.
[…] The trajectory is reflected in the number of Chinese and Hong Kong exhibitors at recent ExpoElectronica events. Just 119 were present in 2023, 57 in 2022, and eight in 2021.
At least three companies exhibiting at this year’s ExpoElectronica have already been sanctioned by the U.S. for helping Russians evade international trade restrictions. [<a href="http://newsweek.com/china-us-sanctions-deals-russia-electronics-military-1893676">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Chinese actors have also provided Russia with media support to amplify pro-Russian narratives of the war. Since the conflict began, Chinese censors have issued instructions to <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/minitrue-turn-down-temperature-strictly-control-content-on-ukraine-situation/">turn down the temperature on public sentiment</a> about the war, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/minitrue-four-leaked-cac-censorship-directives-on-ukraine-beijing-olympic-budget-and-ban-of-russian-and-belarusian-paralympians/">limit independent engagement on the war</a>, and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/02/minitrue-keep-weibo-posts-on-ukraine-favorable-to-russia-control-comments/">keep Weibo posts about Ukraine favorable to Russia</a>. As a result, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/anti-war-voices-censored-dont-make-china-complicit-in-this/">anti-war voices</a> and other <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/four-censored-essays-on-ukraine-crisis/">content about the war</a> have been suppressed on Chinese social media. Chinese state media has also <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/chinese-state-media-reinforces-russian-disinformation-about-war-in-ukraine/">reinforced Russian disinformation</a> about the war. After the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, Chinese state and commercial media largely <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/02/amid-private-tributes-from-citizens-chinese-media-mostly-silent-on-navalnys-death/">echoed Russian government talking points</a>.
Many in Washington, D.C. have emphasized <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/video/chinas-rise-and-russias-invasion-challenges-us-faces-new-cold-wars">the view of China and Russia as Cold War adversaries</a> of the United States. Some American groups, such as the International Republican Institute, have gone further to argue that Russia and China pose an ongoing, coordinated authoritarian threat based on “<a href="https://www.iri.org/resources/the-authoritarian-nexus-how-russia-and-china-undermine-democracy-worldwide/">their goal of weakening democratic institutions and bolstering autocratic governance worldwide</a>”:
<blockquote>The Authoritarian Nexus: How Russia and China Undermine Democracy Worldwide is a compendium of nine country case studies, covering Central African Republic (CAR), Libya, Sudan, Argentina, Chile, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. The report examines how the corrosive actions of authoritarian actors overlap and complement one another and, assesses their impact on democratic norms and institutions. The case studies shed light on how powerful malign states try to influence the politics and governance of other nations to achieve favorable outcomes for their respective interests.
Each case is unique. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russian troll farms are indirectly helped by China’s efforts to undermine information integrity. In Montenegro, China and Russia take advantage of deep divides in the population and the media to push their agendas. In North Macedonia, although the research did not find direct cooperation between China and Russia, the two countries rely on the same tactics to pressure local leadership. And in Serbia, the West’s disengagement has boosted Russia and China’s influence.
Both nations exploit weak governments and empower corruption, sometimes in order to make business deals, sometimes in order to influence a country’s politics. To address Argentina’s economic challenges some local leaders are eager to partner with China and Russia, including in ways that undermine rule of law and contribute to democratic backsliding. In neighboring Chile, Russia and China do not appear to be working together, though both countries disseminate anti-U.S. disinformation and propaganda. [<a href="https://www.iri.org/resources/the-authoritarian-nexus-how-russia-and-china-undermine-democracy-worldwide/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
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<title>Pirate E-Book Site Under Pressure in China, Endangering Access To Banned Books</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/pirated-e-book-site-under-pressure-in-china-endangering-access-to-banned-books/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alexander Boyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2024 02:57:24 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CDT Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[China & the World]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Culture & the Arts]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[anti-censorship tools]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[arts censorship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[banned books]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[censorship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[china books]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[evading censorship]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[jonathan spence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[netizen comments]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Netizen Voices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[pirates]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[yan lianke]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699226</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Z-Library, an online database with tens of millions of pirated and uncensored books and articles available for free download, is closing its Chinese WeChat account. In a statement posted to WeChat, Z-Library claimed that Chinese legal authorities had “attacked” its volunteer staff and intimated that they had refused to comply with censorship demands. The statement […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Z-Library, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/17/fbi-takeover-zlibrary-booktok-impacted/">an online database with tens of millions of pirated and uncensored books and articles</a> available for free download, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707420.html">is closing its Chinese WeChat account</a>. In a statement posted to WeChat, Z-Library claimed that Chinese legal authorities had “attacked” its volunteer staff and intimated that they had refused to comply with censorship demands. The statement also seemed to encourage Chinese users to download virtual private networks (VPNs) (or other “scientific” means) in order to access the website despite “internet surveillance-and-control” policies:
<blockquote>In our informatized, fast-developing era, voices from every corner can leap across oceans to reach our ears. However, sometimes the restrictions of technology and law still create barriers to communication. Today, we must share important news with you all. Due to the Chinese legal system’s attacks on the volunteers behind our website, fundraising, and social media account, we have had to make a difficult decision: our mainland Chinese social media account will be deleted within seven days.
This is not a simple farewell—it is the epitome of this era. Over the past years, we have shared knowledge and ideas with hundreds of thousands of Chinese readers. Every interaction, every debate is etched deeply in our memory. We know from the bottom of our hearts that every click from every user was filled with desire for freedom of knowledge and diverse cultures. 
Although our social media account will soon close, our website will continue to welcome users from mainland China. We will preserve our website’s spirit of openness. We will not remove a single book from our shelves. However, due to internet surveillance-and-control policies, you may have to use scientific means to visit our website. We understand that this is inconvenient for you, but we hope that you can understand our hands are tied. 
[…] Goodbye, China. This is not the end, for we will continue—in a new manner. [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707420.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
The official Z-Library account was deleted soon after the statement’s publication. It is unclear whether the account’s administrators took it down early or whether the account was shuttered by WeChat. Underneath the announcement, <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707420.html">Z-Library users lamented its departure</a> and compared Chinese information controls to the Berlin Wall: 
<blockquote>阿白：The Berlin Wall cannot stop reunions of the mind. 
戬江苏：I’m bawling… zlib, you saved this broke college student’s life. 
一恒：It feels like I’ve lost a best friend. I can’t speak. I hope you return before long. 
八零后：When I saw your public account on WeChat, I thought I was hallucinating. Even then, I had a premonition this would be the outcome. It was expected. Goodbye. 
Lorenz：My sincere gratitude for all your efforts towards freedom of knowledge. 
夕惕若厉：We will remember you forever. Thank you zlib. 
虔琳：Oof. Without zlib, my Kindle loses its soul and becomes but another brick. Thank you zlib, for providing me with endless satisfaction. I await your return. [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707420.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
China is not the only country to target Z-Library. In 2022, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/20/23469142/feds-arrest-russians-z-library-pirated-ebooks">the Department of Justice announced the arrest of two Russian nationals it claimed were behind the site</a> and briefly succeeded in knocking the website offline. Z-Library was also <a href="https://archive.ph/W77gX">banned in India</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/french-publishers-win-z-library-piracy-blocking-order-220920/">in France</a> in 2022. China’s apparent pressure on the site could most charitably be interpreted as intellectual property protection of the kind it has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/business/economy/china-trade-intellectual-property.html">often been accused of neglecting</a>; but the picture is inescapably complicated by the fact that much of Z-Library’s appeal to Chinese users is that its contents are not only <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/free_as_in_beer">“free as in beer,” but also “free as in speech.”</a>
China<a href="https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2800&context=jeal"> maintains strict censorship of all material officially published or otherwise distributed</a> within its borders. Last year, a book on the last Ming emperor was recalled from shelves—<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/10/xi-parallels-suspected-behind-withdrawal-of-book-on-ill-fated-chongzhen-emperor/">and all mention of it banned on social media</a>—allegedly because the cover could be construed as a criticism of Xi Jinping. Foreign writers are <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/05/pen-foreign-authors-and-the-challenge-of-chinese-censorship/">subject to censorship</a> too. A recent casual survey of history books found that foundational works in international China studies like Jonathan Spence’s “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” and Gail Hershatter’s “Women and China’s Revolution” were <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707366.html">no longer being re-printed in China</a> or authorized for distribution, respectively.
At Lit Hub, the renowned and oft-censored Chinese author Yan Lianke wrote on <a href="https://lithub.com/yan-lianke-wants-you-to-stop-describing-him-as-chinas-most-censored-author/">why he does not find the unofficial title “most censored” to be an honorific</a>: 
<blockquote> In contemporary China there are several—or even several dozen—books written every year that cannot be published because they have been censored or banned. Even if we resent this sort of censorship and are willing to go to great lengths to abolish it, we cannot automatically conclude that all books that have been censored are necessarily great works of art. 
 
[…] However, this does not necessarily offer a standard for evaluating the artistic quality of the works in question. Several years ago, a Chinese author spent hundreds of thousands of yuan bribing the Chinese publishing industry so that it would criticize and ban his works. This hilarious example illustrates how censorship is truly a pathway to recognition, as opposed to being a standard of artistic quality.
 
For this reason, whenever I am abroad and am introduced as China’s most censored author, I simply remain silent, feeling neither pride nor pleasure in this description. I can only treat this sort of introduction as an inappropriate courtesy—such as when you encounter an acquaintance and offer your cheek to be kissed, and the acquaintance merely extends a hand. [<a href="https://lithub.com/yan-lianke-wants-you-to-stop-describing-him-as-chinas-most-censored-author/">Source</a>] </blockquote>
 
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<title>Island Nations’ Election Results Reshuffle Geopolitical Landscape for China</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/island-nations-election-results-reshuffle-geopolitical-landscape-for-china/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arthur Kaufman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 05:32:00 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[China & the World]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Recent News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[election]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[elections]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[global influence]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Global South]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Indian Ocean]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[international relations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[pacific]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Solomon Islands]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[South Pacific]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Taiwan]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[The Maldives]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699217</guid>
<description><![CDATA[On April 17, the Solomon Islands held its first general election since Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare signed a controversial security pact with China in 2022. Under his administration, the country switched its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China in September 2019, leading to periodic protests that boiled over into “anti-China” riots in November 2021. As […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[On April 17, the Solomon Islands held its first general election since Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare signed a controversial <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/03/solomon-islands-and-china-seek-to-deepen-security-partnership-unnerving-neighbors/">security pact with China</a> in 2022. Under his administration, the country <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2019/09/solomon-islands-switch-diplomatic-allegiance-from-taiwan/">switched its diplomatic allegiance</a> from Taiwan to China in September 2019, leading to periodic protests that boiled over into <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2021/11/protests-engulf-solomon-islands-and-chinese-businesses-amid-geopolitical-rivalries/">“anti-China” riots</a> in November 2021. As Kirsty Needham reported for Reuters, after serving as prime minister on four different occasions and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/solomon-islands-pm-sogavare-wont-stand-renomination-next-week-2024-04-29/">after failing to win a majority, Sogavare just announced he would not seek another term</a>:
<blockquote>Solomon Islands incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said he would not be a candidate when lawmakers vote this week for a new prime minister, and his political party would instead back former Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele.
[…] Sogavare, who narrowly held his on seat in last Wednesday’s national election, announced he would not be a candidate for prime minister at a televised press conference on Monday evening.
[…] Election results showed Sogavare’s [Ownership, Unity, and Responsibility] party won 15 of the 50 seats in parliament, while the opposition CARE coalition has 20. Independents and micro parties won 15 seats, and courting the independents will be the key to reaching the 26 seats needed to form a government. Sogavare said on Monday his party had support for 28 seats.
Nominations for candidates for prime minister opened on Monday, and lawmakers are expected to vote on Thursday. The nomination vote had previously been expected to take place next week, on May 8. [<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/solomon-islands-pm-sogavare-wont-stand-renomination-next-week-2024-04-29/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
“<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3260804/solomon-islands-china-friendly-pm-sogavare-not-standing-new-term">Geopolitics is at play</a>,” Sogavare said, adding that his government had been “under pressure from the United States and Western allies” and that he had been “accused of many things.” His decision to cultivate closer relations with Beijing garnered intense pushback from Western capitals worried about expanding Chinese influence in what Western media and officials described as “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60896824">Australia’s backyard</a>.”
In a piece for The Interpreter, published by the Lowy Institute, Jon Fraenkel argued that <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/solomon-islands-unexpected-defeat-sogavare">“what transpired on 17 April was an emphatic defeat for the ruling party,” Sogavare’s Ownership, Unity and Responsibility (OUR) party</a>:
<blockquote>18 of the incumbent OUR ministers lost their seats and none of the party’s ten newer challenger candidates was successful. The economic downturn since 2020, and a major contraction in log exports to China, conflicted with Sogavare’s promises of considerable developmental gains arising from the new diplomatic disposition.
Worse still, OUR suffered a major setback on the island of Malaita. Following the diplomatic switch to China, the provincial government on Malaita had defied the national government by retaining links with Taiwan, with some assistance from the United States. In early 2023, after a protracted showdown, the island’s premier, Daniel Suidani, was ousted in a no-confidence vote that was openly orchestrated by the national government. He was replaced by a pro-China administration led by Martin Fini. Yet in the provincial elections, which were held simultaneously with the national elections on 17 April, not only was Suidani returned to the provincial assembly but his successor as premier lost his seat. Four of the eight OUR incumbents representing Malaita in the national parliament were ousted. In the west, Sogavare fought off a strong challenge in his own East Choiseul constituency, where he claimed that the United States backed his major rival. [<a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/solomon-islands-unexpected-defeat-sogavare">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Edward Acton Cavanough, author of “Divided Isles: Solomon Islands and the China Switch,” told Politico: “The results of the election so far suggest that the governing coalition of pro-Beijing Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has taken a hit. But <a href="https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/china-watcher/blinkens-bad-cop-duty-in-beijing/">whether or not this is related specifically to Sogavare’s China stance</a>, or whether it is a reflection of the general apathy or frustrations towards the government is hard to distinguish.” Nonetheless, in a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/11/taiwan-presidential-election-polling-china-tsai-lai-hou-ko/">pattern familiar from other cases</a>, some Western analysts framed the election as merely a <a href="https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2024/03/27/la-chine-aux-iles-salomon-arsenaliser-lelection-pour-gagner-le-pacifique/">referendum on China</a>. In an interview with The Diplomat, Cavanough painted a complex picture of the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/solomon-islands-and-the-china-switch-big-politics-in-small-places/">inception of Sogavare’s pro-China position and its economic and geopolitical impacts</a>:
<blockquote>Sogavare, in my view, has always been skeptical of the Taiwanese relationship. But he was not the original proponent of a Switch to China, and indeed didn’t campaign on it before the 2019 election. He saw the growing support for a China switch among his own MPs as a threat to his own power if he didn’t act. And he also saw in a China relationship an opportunity to both directly fund key projects he wanted to define his legacy, like the Pacific Games, as well as an opportunity for greater leverage over Western aid partners.
[…] So Sogavare didn’t conceive the Switch. But he capitalized on it in a way that fundamentally strengthened his own political interests. The overall benefits to the country are harder to identify.
[…] The economic impact of the Switch has appeared negligible: While there’ve been some significant projects funded by the Chinese, most notably a major sports stadium, the benefits of this aren’t being seen in economic data in a significant way, nor on the ground in communities. The reality is that China has yet to invest in any projects that are really designed to solve long-term economic development issues. They’ve so far invested in projects that the Sogavare government wanted them to. For most people in Solomons, their lives remain stubbornly the same, despite all the fanfare.
What the Switch has done is put Solomons on the global stage. It has given Manasseh Sogavare extraordinary leverage over traditional partners, and seen Solomon Islands issues taken seriously by leaders as senior as U.S. President Joe Biden. [<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/solomon-islands-and-the-china-switch-big-politics-in-small-places/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Meanwhile, another island nation recently completed a national election with high geopolitical stakes for China. The Maldives held its parliamentary election last week, resulting in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/maldives-elections-2024-mohamed-muizzu-pnc-peoples-national-congress-pro-china-party-wins">landslide victory</a> for the party of President Mohamed Muizzu, which won two-thirds of the seats. The Economist wrote that <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/04/25/the-maldives-is-cosying-up-to-china">this “confirms the trend” that the “Maldives is cosying up to China”</a>:
<blockquote>The victory is likely to help Mr Muizzu, who took over as president in November, change his country’s foreign policy. He has sought to make good on an election promise to reorient the archipelago away from India, traditionally the Maldives’ closest regional economic and security partner, and step up cooperation with China.
[…] Mr Muizzu claims that his foreign policy is merely “pro-Maldives” rather than pro- or anti-China or India. Yet he won last year’s presidential election on an “India out” platform. He promised to rid the atoll of India’s small military presence, which consists of a few dozen soldiers manning rescue helicopters donated by India, and to attract more investment from China. After he took office he eschewed the tradition adhered to by his predecessors, all of whom made their first foreign visit to Delhi. Instead, he went first to Turkey and then to the United Arab Emirates. In January he made a five-day state visit to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping and signed a raft of co-operation agreements. He has yet to visit India. [<a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/04/25/the-maldives-is-cosying-up-to-china">Source</a>]</blockquote>
The Maldives is also grappling with growing debt, low revenue, and depleting foreign reserves, but retains sizable economic dependencies on India, all of which provides <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/china-and-india-compete-for-influence-in-the-maldives/a-68899681">opportunities and constraints</a> for Muizzu’s pivot to China. Given these dynamics, Zaheena Rasheed from Al Jazeera described <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/24/absolute-power-after-pro-china-maldives-leaders-big-win-whats-next">the extent to which China might hold leverage over the Maldives</a>:
<blockquote>Despite Muizzu making a visit in January to Beijing, where Chinese President Xi Jinping called him an “old friend”, it is not clear what help, if any, was offered [regarding the Maldives’ debt issues]. Maldivian media reported that China agreed to provide grant assistance to Maldives — although the amount was not disclosed — and said it would consider restructuring debt repayments, a large chunk of which is due in 2026.
According to [London-based financial intelligence provider] REDD, however, the restructuring of Chinese debt alone is unlikely to be sufficient for Maldives to avoid increased external debt distress because of an Islamic bond worth $500m that is also reaching maturity in 2026.
A former senior government official, who spoke to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity, said China may now be more amenable given Muizzu’s landslide win. “China has a lot of leverage,” the ex-official said, and will likely seek favours in return, including the ratification of a Free Trade Agreement that has languished since 2014 and access to key east-west trade routes that Maldives straddles. Indian and Western diplomats have previously expressed worries this access may pave the way for China to secure an outpost in the Indian Ocean. [<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/24/absolute-power-after-pro-china-maldives-leaders-big-win-whats-next">Source</a>]</blockquote>
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<title>Quiet Mourning for Dissident Lin Zhao On 56th Anniversary Of Her Execution</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/quiet-mourning-for-dissident-lin-zhao-on-56th-anniversary-of-her-execution/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alexander Boyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2024 23:55:50 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CDT Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Society]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Ai Xiaoming]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Anti-Rightist Campaign]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Cultural Revolution]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[dissidents]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Hu Jie]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Lin Zhao]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699204</guid>
<description><![CDATA[56 years after her wrongful execution, the poet-journalist turned dissident Lin Zhao is still mourned in China. Lin, a Peking University student persecuted during the anti-Rightist Campaign, was executed at the height of the Cultural Revolution on April 29, 1968. Lin had joined the Party in her teens but began to question Mao’s leadership. She […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[56 years after her wrongful execution, the <a href="https://www.chinafile.com/library/books/blood-letters">poet-journalist turned dissident Lin Zhao</a> is still mourned in China. Lin, a Peking University student persecuted during the anti-Rightist Campaign, was executed at the height of the Cultural Revolution on April 29, 1968. Lin had joined the Party in her teens but began to question Mao’s leadership. She was first arrested in 1958 in Beijing and then released for medical reasons. She was re-arrested in 1960 and spent the rest of her life in prison. Denied the use of pen and paper while incarcerated, Lin wrote hundreds of thousands of characters of poetry and political writing using her own blood as ink. Before her death, she asserted: “History will find me innocent.” In 1980, these words were vindicated when the Shanghai Higher People’s Court posthumously overturned her conviction.
<a href="https://chinabooksreview.com/2023/10/19/a-spark-extinguished/">Her dissident poetry inspired the underground magazine “Spark”</a> and continues to reverberate within China today. While Lin has been officially rehabilitated, public mourning for her remains politically sensitive (as it does for others, including <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/tightened-security-during-qingming-festival-appears-to-target-public-mourning-of-li-keqiang/">late premier Li Keqiang earlier this April</a>). <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/05/sensitive-words-trying-to-visit-lin-zhaos-grave/">Police have detained visitors to Lin’s grave on the anniversaries of her execution</a>. The 2004 documentary “<a href="https://icarusfilms.com/df-linzha">Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul</a>,” a film by the legendary documentarian Hu Jie, has also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/sparks-chinas-underground-historians-and-their-battle-for-the-future-ian-johnson-book-review">never been publicly shown in China</a>. However, samizdat copies circulate online—and censors appear to leave them alone. On Weibo, <a href="https://twitter.com/alexludoboyd/status/1784994380345942442">a pirated version of the full documentary</a> has accumulated over 150,000 views in the past few weeks. One of the top comments says, “I hope that in the future we can say farewell to ignorant dictatorship.” A number of other viewers commented on continued police surveillance of her grave.
On WeChat, many public accounts shared public remembrances of Lin. The oft-censored account <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/space/%E7%8E%96%E5%A5%8C%E6%9D%82%E8%B4%A7%E9%93%BA">玖奌杂货店</a> (Jiǔdiǎn záhuòdiàn) wrote that <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707387.html">Lin’s unflagging commitment to speaking the truth inspires their writing</a>:
<blockquote>I’m lazy by nature. I often don’t finish what I start. But I’ve somehow persisted in writing this account for quite a few years now. I’ve been through a fair amount of trouble, but I have never given up. I believe that decades from now Lin Zhao’s spirit of insistence on the truth—of dying on her feet rather than living on her knees—will still shine like a bright star, illuminating the hearts of authors. [<a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/707387.html">Chinese</a>]</blockquote>
The documentarian filmmaker and activist Ai Xiaoming also published an interview with Lin’s former associate to WeChat: 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
The interview is with Lin's boyfriend, Gan Cui, who gives important details about Lin's work and how he got the material published. It's in Chinese but Google or Deepl will give you a good sense of Ai's intellectual depth and breadth. It's mainly <a href="https://t.co/hSuGEaGFWJ">pic.twitter.com/hSuGEaGFWJ</a>
— Ian Johnson (@iandenisjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/iandenisjohnson/status/1785007090890625278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In 2022, Vienna Tang of Radio Free Asia interviewed <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/lin-zhao-07252022091248.html">Duke University professor Lian Xi about his biography of Lin, “Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, A Martyr in Mao’s China”</a>:
<blockquote>RFA: Why was Lin such an important figure?
Lian Xi: Lin Zhao really was an extraordinary person. We know that there were many, many victims of the Cultural Revolution, but there were no real political dissidents like Lin Zhao. There were some big-name intellectuals within [the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)] … peoplel like Deng Tuo and Wu Han in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution started … who tried to persuade Mao to give up authoritarian rule. There were also some political heretics outside the CCP during the Cultural Revolution, like Yu Luoke and Zhang Zhixin, but they never totally broke away from the ideology of the CCP. The only one who openly rejected CCP ideology as enslavement and tyranny was Lin Zhao.
[…] RFA: A lot of people have referred to Lin Zhao as the goddess of democracy. Should she be elevated in such a way?
Lian Xi: Lin Zhao wasn’t a saint; she was flesh and blood. During the land reform movement, she supported revolutionary violence, which she later regretted very much. We also know that she was very short-tempered. What I hoped to achieve in the biography to restore this sense of a real person. But her personality, her impatience, don’t mean she wasn’t a great person: she was a truly great person. I wanted readers to get to know Lin Zhao’s mind, her inner life and her psyche; her courage, moral fiber, her values and how she kept going to defend human dignity under unimaginably difficult circumstances. At such a dark time, Lin defended the idea of personal independence and freedom. We should be defending those things with even greater zeal today. [<a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/lin-zhao-07252022091248.html">Source</a>]</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Monday is the 56th anniversary of the execution of one of the most inspiring public intellectuals in the history of the PRC, Lin Zhao. To commemorate this day, <a href="https://twitter.com/mjdanganguan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mjdanganguan</a> has put together most of her work and made it available free to download. <a href="https://t.co/xyCCN1m6nm">https://t.co/xyCCN1m6nm</a> <a href="https://t.co/bsEYHM2R6Z">pic.twitter.com/bsEYHM2R6Z</a>
— Ian Johnson (@iandenisjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/iandenisjohnson/status/1784173755746398435?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<title>Photo: Zhang Jiajie, by Jay Huang</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/photo-zhang-jiajie-by-jay-huang/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Apr 2024 04:17:40 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Main Photo]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699198</guid>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_699199" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-699199" class="size-full wp-image-699199" src="http://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Zhang-Jiajie-by-Jay-Huang-e1714191403129.jpg" alt="A profusion of dark pink azaleas bloom in the foreground of this dramatic vista of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan Province, whose pinnacle-shaped peaks are wreathed in mist and covered with trees and lush vegetation." width="600" height="401" />Zhang Jiajie, by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jayhuangphotos/53668397413/">Jay Huang (CC BY-NC 2.0)</a></div>
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<title>New Laws and Guidelines From E.U. and ILO Target Forced Labor With Eye on Xinjiang</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/i-l-o-e-u-pass-new-laws-against-forced-labor-with-eye-on-xinjiang/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arthur Kaufman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 27 Apr 2024 02:25:07 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[China & the World]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Recent News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Europe relations]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[european union]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[global economy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[human rights in Xinjiang]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[human rights violations in Xinjiang]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[international law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[international trade]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[labor]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[labor conditions]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[labor law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[mass sentencing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[political prisoners]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[prisoners]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[sentencing]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[slave labor]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Xinjiang]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Xinjiang internment camps]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699176</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The European Parliament voted this week in favor of regulations to ban the sale, import, and export of goods made using forced labor. While the ban does not explicitly target any single country, it is widely seen as responding to numerous reports of forced labor in China, particularly in Xinjiang, where the U.N. has concluded […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The European Parliament voted this week in favor of <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240419IPR20551/products-made-with-forced-labour-to-be-banned-from-eu-single-market#:~:text=Parliament%20has%20given%20its%20final,%2C%20supply%20chains%2C%20and%20manufacturers.">regulations</a> to ban the sale, import, and export of goods made using forced labor. While the ban does not explicitly target any single country, it is widely seen as responding to numerous reports of <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/slave-labor/">forced labor</a> in China, particularly in Xinjiang, where the U.N. has concluded that the Uyghur population may be subject to <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/09/un-report-serious-human-rights-violations-in-xinjiang-may-constitute-crimes-against-humanity/">crimes against humanity</a> and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/08/un-special-rapporteurs-report-reasonable-to-conclude-existence-of-forced-labor-in-xinjiang/">enslavement</a>. The E.U.’s ban follows related measures by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to strengthen its protections against forced labor as a result of similar concerns about <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes-net.webpkgcache.com/doc/-/s/chinadigitaltimes.net/china/supply-chain/">supply chains</a> and <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/labor/">labor conditions</a> in China. Reuters summarized <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-parliament-approves-ban-products-made-with-forced-labour-2024-04-23/">the European Parliament’s new regulations</a>:
<blockquote>National authorities in the 27-country bloc or the executive Commission will be able to investigate suspicious goods, supply chains, and manufacturers. Preliminary investigations should be wrapped up within 30 working days.
If a product is deemed to have been made using forced labour, it will no longer be possible to sell it in the EU market and shipments will be intercepted at the EU’s borders.
[…] The EU Parliament approved the law with a large majority of 555 votes in favour, six against, and 45 abstentions.
It still needs approval from EU countries to enter into force – a final step that is usually a formality which approves laws with no changes.
EU countries will have to start applying the law within three years. [<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-parliament-approves-ban-products-made-with-forced-labour-2024-04-23/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
The regulations were a long time in the making. The European Commission <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/09/eu-unveils-plan-to-ban-products-made-with-forced-labor/">released its official proposal</a> back in September 2022. Since then, various reports have demonstrated that <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/05/tourism-push-and-continued-labor-coercion-mark-new-phase-in-xinjiang-repression/">coercive labor transfers</a> in Xinjiang have continued, and dozens of companies in the <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/02/reports-reveal-more-forced-labor-retroactive-punishment-for-religious-practice-in-xinjiang/">automobile</a> and <a href="https://www.shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy-centre-international-justice/research-and-projects/all-projects/eu-apparel">apparel</a> industries have allowed goods made with forced labor to enter the EU market. AFP described <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/23/eu-parliament-to-back-ban-on-forced-labour-with-eye-on-china">how the legislation that was just passed would work to address some of these issues</a>:
<blockquote>The new rules give the European Commission the power to launch investigations when there are suspicions about the supply chains in countries outside the EU.
If the use of forced labour is proven, officials will seize the products at the borders and order their withdrawal from the European market and online retailers.
If the risk is in one member state, the local authority in that country will investigate the products allegedly made using forced labour.
For some goods deemed to be at risk, importers will be forced to provide detailed information on the manufacturers.
The EU will also create a regularly updated database about forced labour risks that will include international reports to aid the commission and national bodies in assessing possible violations of the law. [<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/23/eu-parliament-to-back-ban-on-forced-labour-with-eye-on-china">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Critics pointed out that the E.U.’s regulations are not as strict as those passed in the U.S. by the <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/06/uyghur-forced-labor-prevention-act-enters-into-force/">Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act</a>, which went into effect in June 2022 and placed the burden of proof on companies to establish the absence of forced labor, not on regulators to show its absence. “We welcome this milestone but stress that all related guidance, guidelines and considerations of when to investigate cases be created in a way that ensures the regulation can effectively ban products made with state-imposed forced labor,” said Zumretay Arkin, director of global advocacy at World Uyghur Congress. She added that the E.U. “<a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/eu-regulation-04232024161335.html">missed a crucial opportunity</a> to agree on an instrument that could meaningfully address forced labor when the government is the perpetrator, like in the Uyghur region in China.” Mared Gwyn Jones & Paula Soler from Euronews highlighted <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/04/23/eu-to-ban-forced-labour-products-in-move-mostly-targeted-at-china">other critiques about insufficient redress for victims of forced labor</a>:
<blockquote>On the other hand, civil society organisations have also flagged some limitations of the new regulation, as it does not include an obligation to provide remediation for victims as a condition to lift a ban on a product.
“Workers affected by forced labour will remain vulnerable without an explicit obligation to remedy harm,” Sian Lea, Business and Human Rights manager at Anti-Slavery International, told Euronews, arguing that without low evidentiary thresholds, it will be difficult for workers to bring up complaints against abusing companies.
NGOs also regret that there is no presumption of state-imposed forced labour in high-risk areas and sectors where there is evidence of slave labour.
The regulation is “weak” in those cases, says advocacy group Clean Clothes Campaign: “Our mind goes to the Uyghurs population: one could doubt whether this regulation will actually have an impact on their lives”. [<a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/04/23/eu-to-ban-forced-labour-products-in-move-mostly-targeted-at-china">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Reactions in China were predictably negative. Global Times stated that the forced-labor ban “<a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202404/1311206.shtml#:~:text=EU%20'forced%20labor'%20ban%20overshadows,amid%20fruitful%20cooperation%20%2D%20Global%20Times&text=The%20European%20Parliament%20on%20Tuesday,shadow%20on%20China%2DEU%20trade.">overshadows China[-E.U.] ties</a>” and urged the E.U. to have the “strategic wisdom not to mix political and economic issues.” In addition to this ban, E.U.-China relations have been deteriorating recently due to rising pressure within Europe to <a href="https://www.scmp.com/video/economy/3259295/why-eu-us-are-concerned-about-chinas-overcapacity">push back</a> against Chinese exports of overcapacity and to <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/us-and-europe-2-different-approaches-to-restricting-chinese-evs/">impose tariffs</a> on Chinese electric vehicle imports. Other contributing factors include growing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-sees-signs-china-supplying-dual-use-components-russia-dombrovskis-says-2024-04-18/">dissatisfaction</a> about Chinese support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, European <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/25/china-gravely-concerned-over-eu-raids-on-security-equipment-company">raids</a> on Chinese company Nuctech, and German <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/germany-detains-lawmakers-assistantinfourth-suspected-china-spying-arrest-this-week-22342c53">arrests</a> of suspected Chinese spies.
Meanwhile, the ILO also recently updated its <a href="https://www.ilo.org/publications/hard-see-harder-count-handbook-forced-labour-prevalence-surveys-third">guidelines</a> on forced labor prevalence surveys. Adrian Zenz wrote for the Jamestown China Brief this month about how <a href="https://jamestown.org/program/updated-ilo-forced-labor-guidelines-directly-target-uyghur-forced-labor/">the ILO’s new guidelines directly target Uyghur forced labor</a>:
<blockquote>For first time since establishing its forced labor taskforce in 2001, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has issued authoritative and comprehensive guidance on operationalizing the research and measurement of forced labor, updating its more provisional guidelines from 2012.
The new ILO Handbook adds a substantial new section on state-imposed forced labor, squarely targeting Beijing’s forced labor in Xinjiang and Tibet and specifically referring to “labor transfers” of ethnic minorities.
The Handbook adopts the author’s category of “non-internment state-imposed forms of forced labor” in its research guidelines, significantly enhancing the ability to detect [Uyghur forced labor].
[…] The Handbook’s statement that non-internment forced labor mobilization is best assessed as a risk rather than a specific instance […] provides strong support for arguments that related legislation should reverse the burden of proof, shifting it from enforcement authorities to companies. This could have implications for the European Union’s upcoming forced labor legislation. [<a href="https://jamestown.org/program/updated-ilo-forced-labor-guidelines-directly-target-uyghur-forced-labor/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
In a testament to the challenges of finding efficient ways to determine the prevalence of forced labor in supply chains, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China is hosting a <a href="https://www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/factories-and-fraud-in-the-prc-how-human-rights-violations-make-reliable-audits">panel next week</a> titled, “Factories And Fraud In The PRC: How Human Rights Violations Make Reliable Audits Impossible.”
Beyond forced labor, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang targeted by state repression have received lengthy prison sentences. The Uyghur Human Rights Project released a <a href="https://uhrp.org/insights/uhrp-analysis-finds-1-in-26-uyghurs-imprisoned-in-region-with-worlds-highest-prison-rate/">new analysis</a> to quantify this phenomenon and found that one in 26 Uyghurs and other non-Han citizens are imprisoned in Xinjiang, a rate of 3,814 people per 100,000 and “just over 47 times the rate of Han people. This figure excludes “re-education” camps and pre-trial detention.
Among those who have been imprisoned and potentially subject to forced labor is Uyghur academic Rahile Dawut. Edward White profiled Rahile this week in The Financial Times, charting <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ca036415-7ded-4384-ac2d-33825f1a82c3?accessToken=zwAAAY8bQTYZkdPKA2QVfe1DhNOsLTOCXxqCww.MEUCICUkPu2ziAdLEHO2fZI6wNQKCsQ1aE51XFJRf43ieFWZAiEA7YItGnufvRK6U61x8mZdUT0ifRZa5FodF_e7ZBtT6vs&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise">her trajectory from thriving custodian of Uyghur culture to target of the state who was forcibly disappeared</a>:
<blockquote>Rahile was tried in secret in December 2018 at an intermediate people’s court in Xinjiang. A subsequent appeal was rejected. For much of the next five years, her immediate family and closest supporters were in the dark.
[…Rahile’s sentence for the crime of “splittism,” endangering state security,] was confirmed last September by Kamm, who was shown an official document. On Chinese government stationery, signed by a senior Chinese official, was a statement: Rahile Dawut was sentenced to life in prison.
With her network of international connections, Rahile’s name was one among about 450 other academics, intellectuals, writers and musicians who campaign groups believe went missing around the same time. Most remain behind bars.
Rahile’s case, experts say, is now emblematic of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the Uyghur people moving from the re-education phase to long-term imprisonment. [<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ca036415-7ded-4384-ac2d-33825f1a82c3?accessToken=zwAAAY8bQTYZkdPKA2QVfe1DhNOsLTOCXxqCww.MEUCICUkPu2ziAdLEHO2fZI6wNQKCsQ1aE51XFJRf43ieFWZAiEA7YItGnufvRK6U61x8mZdUT0ifRZa5FodF_e7ZBtT6vs&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise">Source</a>]</blockquote>
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<title>Photo: Ping Jiang street, Suzhou, China, by cattan2011</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/photo-ping-jiang-street-suzhou-china-by-cattan2011/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Cindy Carter]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2024 01:09:26 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Main Photo]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699171</guid>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_699172" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-699172" class="size-full wp-image-699172" src="http://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Ping-Jiang-street-Suzhou-China-by-cattan2011-e1714007287256.jpg" alt="A brilliant yellow sunset is reflected in the water of a canal, which is lined with gray brick walls and charming traditional one- and two-story buildings with white walls and ornate black-tiled rooftops." width="600" height="450" />Ping Jiang street, Suzhou, China, by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/68166820@N08/33858208498/">cattan2011 (CC BY 2.0)</a></div>
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<title>Taiwanese Drag Queen’s Victory Sparks Quiet Joy Among Fans in China</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/taiwanese-drag-queens-victory-sparks-quiet-joy-in-china/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alexander Boyd]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2024 00:37:02 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[CDT Highlights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[China & the World]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Culture & the Arts]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[gay culture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[lgbt]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[LGBT rights]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[LGBTQ+]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Taiwan]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Taiwan culture]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Taiwan diplomacy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Taiwan relations]]></category>
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<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699159</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Nymphia Wind, a Taiwanese drag queen, has won the 16th season of the American reality TV competition show RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her victory has been cause for quiet celebration in China, where drag is in the ascendant despite increased state repression of the LGBTQ+ community. Nymphia Wind is the drag persona of Leo Tsao, a […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Nymphia Wind, a Taiwanese drag queen, has won the 16th season of the American reality TV competition show <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPaul%27s_Drag_Race">RuPaul’s Drag Race</a>. Her victory has been cause for quiet celebration in China, where drag is in the ascendant despite <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/08/wechat-targets-lgbtq-and-feminist-accounts-in-mass-censorship-event/">increased state repression</a> of the LGBTQ+ community. Nymphia Wind is the drag persona of Leo Tsao, a 28-year-old Taiwanese American fashion designer. Wind’s outspoken pride in both her Asian and Taiwanese heritage has made her a complex figure in China. At The Washington Post, Vic Chiang <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/18/rupaul-drag-race-nymphia-wind-taiwan/">interviewed Nymphia Wind and wrote that Chinese netizens are keeping quiet on her victory</a>:
<blockquote>“Yellow represents the color of my skin,” she said in an interview ahead of the finale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” on Friday, preferring to let her outfits rather than her words remind viewers that she’s the only Asian contestant in the season. “By wearing yellow, I hope to raise more Asian awareness and appreciation.”
[…] “Even politicians who work hard abroad may not gain this kind of exposure for Taiwan,” said Lawrence Jheng, 32, part of a cheerful crowd gathered at a Taipei club for the airing of the episode in which Nymphia Wind declared she was “very proud to call myself Taiwanese.”
[…] In fact, Chinese fans of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” seem to be going out of their way to avoid talking about Nymphia Wind’s success, apparently afraid of being caught up in the escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait. “Drag Race” fan accounts on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo said they would minimize discussions about Nymphia to “protect their nascent drag scene.” [<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/18/rupaul-drag-race-nymphia-wind-taiwan/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
CDT found limited but lively conversation about Nymphia Wind’s victory on Weibo. A number of accounts posted photo collages of her outfits, many of which received hundreds of likes. The conversations focused on pride in seeing a person of Chinese descent win RuPaul’s Drag Race, admiration for Leo Tsao’s supportive mother, and discussions of Wind’s loudly pro-Taiwan independence stance: 
<blockquote>Bokuso：The first full-blooded Asian champion. Everyone should go watch the full show. This season has the best outfits. Every runway was incredibly creative and tasteful. 
草莓菠萝艾瑞克：Omg, the first champion of Chinese descent!
愉快的李姓園丁_小飛fairy：After watching the interview and the documentary, I really admire Nymphia’s mom. It can’t have been easy for her… 
YihaoY：My parents only accepted that I had a professional future in drag after my drag persona was showcased on a billboard on Nanjing Road [a major Shanghai shopping street]. By the way, drag isn’t simply performing in women’s clothes. It’s also closely tied to art, identity, cultural literacy, physical fitness, and more.
气4小红：Within the Asian gay community, this is just as important as when Michelle Yeoh won an Oscar!! I feel seen. 
我的外卖到没到：The pride of Taiwan. 
Caojiyin: Most normal young Taiwanese are pro-independence. Most people around the world are for Taiwan’s independence, too.
Hvxghkyg: You’re not embarrassed they’re pro-Taiwan independence?
ShushuFontanna: Very beautiful, but 100% pro-Taiwan independence</blockquote>
A number of users referenced the <a href="https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1sN41167AM/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click">2022 documentary “Leo & Nymphia,”</a> which profiled Leo and his drag persona. The documentary is available in full on Bilibili, a Chinese video streaming site. The top comment underneath the video reads: “Congratulations, ‘Banana’ on winning the show!” Nymphia’s fans call her “Banana Buddha” and themselves “Banana Believers” in reference to her first appearance on RuPaul’s drag show, which incorporated bananas and which have since become her trademark.
Upon winning the show, Nymphia dedicated her victory to Taiwan. At one point on the show, Wind costumed herself as “boba tea,” the national drink of Taiwan. <a href="https://ew.com/rupauls-drag-race-winner-nymphia-wind-exclusive-interview-8636500">She told Entertainment Weekly</a>: “I obviously came here to represent my country, and I’m not going to do it by putting a flag on my dress […] That was my way of being camp and still representing my country.” In turn, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/taiwan-president-lauds-nymphia-winds-win-on-rupauls-drag-race">President Tsai Ying-wen commended her</a> for “living fearlessly,” adding: “Congratulations to you, Nymphia Wind, for being so accomplished in the difficult art form of drag, and for being the first Taiwanese to take the stage and win on RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
🇹🇼🧋💛 Taiwanese American drag queen Nymphia Wind performing as a giant boba drink and winning Season 16 of RuPaul's Drag Race — plus having President Tsai congratulate her on social — is the kind of authentic soft power win that propaganda can never manufacture. <a href="https://t.co/JDN4bBhvrP">pic.twitter.com/JDN4bBhvrP</a>
— Melissa Chan (@melissakchan) <a href="https://twitter.com/melissakchan/status/1781654321265836337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In China, drag is also popular but often underground—due to fears of state suppression or social ostracization. A 2021 Vice documentary chronicled China’s drag scene: 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Inside China's Drag Community" width="1080" height="608" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/md3bUjSdGM0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Chinese people looking to enjoy drag have increasingly turned to visits to Thailand, which has attracted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/09/china-thailand-chiang-mai-political-freedom/">a growing community of mainland Chinese visitors seeking increased freedom</a>. At The Associated Press, Yucheng Tang reported on <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lgbtq-tourism-china-thailand-64aa8fa85e11ff92ce0adad810af58a7">Thailand’s open embrace of the Chinese LGBTQ+ community</a>:
<blockquote>But at the Bangkok Pride parade in June, Wen noticed people confidently wore what they wanted. She was excited to be able to express herself publicly and finally drop her guard. More than that, she said she was also impressed by the protest element to the event, in which people carried signs written in traditional Chinese with slogans like “China has no LGBTQ” and “Freedom is what we deserve.”
[…] Owen Zhu, a gay real estate agent in Bangkok who sells houses to Chinese clients, said many are also coming to stay. He estimated some 2/3 of his clients are LGBTQ+, many of whom buy apartments to live in part- or full-time.
[…] At the Silver Sand gay bar in Bangkok, owner Adisak Wongwaikankha said about 30% of his customers are LGBTQ+ people from China, and that number has been growing. [<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lgbtq-tourism-china-thailand-64aa8fa85e11ff92ce0adad810af58a7">Source</a>]</blockquote>
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<title>Tighter U.S. Immigration Controls On Inbound Chinese Students Stoke Concern</title>
<link>https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/tighter-u-s-immigration-controls-on-inbound-chinese-students-stoke-concern/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Arthur Kaufman]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2024 19:38:08 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[China & the World]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Level 2 Article]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Recent News]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Sci-Tech]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[chinese abroad]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chinese migrants]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Chinese students]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[deportation]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[financial policy]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[foreign universities]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[immigrants]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[immigration]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[immigration law]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[military]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[overseas Chinese students]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[overseas students]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[students abroad]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[study abroad]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[U.S. immigration]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[U.S. universities]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[universities]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[university students]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[visas]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=699139</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In Peter Hessler’s latest piece for The New Yorker, “How Chinese Students Experience America,” he notes that “COVID, guns, anti-Asian violence, and diplomatic relations have complicated the ambitions of the some three hundred thousand college students who come to the U.S. each year.” One of the first places that some of these hurdles manifest is […]]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[In Peter Hessler’s latest piece for The New Yorker, “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/08/how-chinese-students-experience-america">How Chinese Students Experience America</a>,” he notes that “COVID, guns, anti-Asian violence, and diplomatic relations have complicated the ambitions of the some three hundred thousand college students who come to the U.S. each year.” One of the first places that some of these hurdles manifest is <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/immigration/">at the American border</a>, where a growing number of <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/students-abroad/">Chinese students</a> and researchers have recently found themselves unexpectedly barred entry to the U.S. on the basis of broad national security concerns. Experts argue that the political inertia behind these immigration restrictions has a self-defeating logic that harms both Chinese students and U.S. interests.
This week, Amy Hawkins from The Guardian described <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/chinese-students-in-us-tell-of-chilling-interrogations-and-deportations">cases of “chilling” interrogations and deportations of Chinese students holding valid visas</a>:
<blockquote>“The impact is huge,” says Qin Yan, a professor of pathology at Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, who says that he is aware of more than a dozen Chinese students from Yale and other universities who have been rejected by the US in recent months, despite holding valid visas. Experiments have stalled, and there is a “chilling effect” for the next generation of Chinese scientists.
[…] “It is very hard for a [Customs and Border Protections] officer to really evaluate the risk of espionage,” said Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts, who represents a graduate student at Yale who, midway through her PhD, was sent back from Washington’s Dulles airport in December, and banned from re-entering the US for five years.
[…] Academics say that scrutiny has widened to different fields – particularly medical sciences – with the reasons for the refusals not made clear.
X Edward Guo, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, said that part of the problem is that […] military research does sometimes take place on university campuses. “It’s not black and white … there are medical universities that also do military. But 99% of those professors are doing biomedical research and have nothing to do with the military.” [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/chinese-students-in-us-tell-of-chilling-interrogations-and-deportations">Source</a>]</blockquote>
Lily Kuo and Cate Cadell from The Washington Post reported last month on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/14/china-united-states-university-students-border/">related cases of Chinese students being harshly treated at the U.S. border, which has disrupted their lives and altered their perceptions of the U.S.</a>:
<blockquote>Six Chinese students and two visiting scholars who spoke to The Washington Post described being questioned upon landing in the United States about their research, families and any possible connection to China’s ruling Communist Party. Two of them, their visas canceled, were immediately repatriated. All but one were midway through their studies and had previously been allowed to enter with valid visas.
It is difficult to quantify the number of Chinese students who have been rejected at the border, with both Chinese and U.S. officials declining to provide detailed figures. But the State Department says the number of Chinese students detained and found inadmissible for entry at U.S. ports has remained stable in recent years — representing fewer than 0.1 percent of those who arrive. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security declined to provide figures on how that compared with other nationalities.
[…] There is no way for students to restore a canceled visa aside from filing a motion to have the decision reviewed by Customs and Border Protection.
[…] “We talk about China being a surveillance state, and you arrive in the U.S. and the U.S. definitely appears to be a surveillance state,” said [Clyde Yicheng Wang, an assistant professor in politics and East Asian studies at Washington and Lee University, who was questioned by CBP about his relations to CCP members]. “I can definitely see that becoming a moment of disillusion.” [<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/14/china-united-states-university-students-border/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
News of this phenomenon has spread back to China, where it feeds into an information environment rife with <a href="https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/04/chinese-social-media-ablaze-with-discussion-of-germany-legalizing-weed/">portrayals of Western societies in disarray</a>. The Chinese embassy in the U.S. issued a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-us-university-students-deported-interrogation-40012461bd45306e527946a7403f8b1a">critical statement</a> in January claiming that some Chinese students entering the U.S. had had their electronic devices checked, been denied outside communication, and been detained for more than ten hours. In April, the embassy accused the U.S. of “unjustifiably” <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3258389/china-vows-protest-every-single-incident-mistreatment-chinese-arrivals-us">sending back nearly 300 Chinese citizens</a> since July 2021, including more than 70 Chinese students that it said had valid travel documents. On WeChat, China Science Daily, part of a news media unit under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, shared an article about <a href="https://www.pekingnology.com/p/how-us-customs-shattered-chinese">a number of Chinese female students who were denied entry at the U.S. border and allegedly subjected to deceitful, punitive treatment by border-patrol officials</a>. Here is an excerpt, translated by Pekingnology, focusing on the case of Ph.D. student Meng Fei, who was repatriated to China upon her arrival in the U.S.:
<blockquote>When signing her statement, Meng was told it was just to confirm the interrogation’s accuracy, but she wasn’t allowed to see the content before signing. Only after signing did she learn that she would not only be repatriated rapidly but also banned for five years. She was outraged because the customs officers kept urging her to accept the decision to return to China during the interrogation, saying she could re-enter easily by reapplying for a visa. The five-year ban was not mentioned during the whole process.
With two armed officers watching, she had no choice but to comply, focusing only on how to leave that dreadful place and contact the outside world.
The nightmare didn’t end there. After an 8-hour wait in the little dark room, Meng confronted a humiliating search, followed by 12 hours in solitary confinement.
[…] The findings [in an Excel document created by Meng Fei, with information from ten other Chinese women who had been repatriated] showed that all ten were graduates from prestigious universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, among others. Their domestic degrees spanned fields like biological sciences, preventive medicine, statistics, materials physical chemistry, communication engineering, German, and business administration. They were currently studying at U.S. institutions such as Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia. Among them, two were first-year master’s students, three first-year Ph.D. students, two fifth-year Ph.D. students, one sixth-year Ph.D. student, one postdoctoral fellow, and one female on a work visa. [<a href="https://www.pekingnology.com/p/how-us-customs-shattered-chinese">Source</a>]</blockquote>
A number of U.S. legal restrictions have been imposed in recent years that have contributed to the climate of scrutiny against Chinese students. President Joe Biden has continued the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2021/08/10/biden-keeps-costly-trump-visa-policy-denying-chinese-grad-students/?sh=70242a7e3641">policy barring students and researchers</a> linked to Chinese entities that have any connection with the Chinese military. Last year, Florida <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/us/florida-law-chills-chinese-student-recruitment.html">passed a law restricting public universities and colleges in the state</a> from “accepting grants from or participating in partnerships or agreements” with individuals or schools from China and six other countries (Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria). The University of Florida enrolls over 1,000 students from these countries, the majority of whom come from China. This increased scrutiny of inbound (<a href="https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/new-security-measures-curtailing-study-of-china-alarm-educators">and outbound</a>) educational exchange has contributed to a decrease in the number of <a href="https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/for-many-reasons-fewer-chinese-students-attend-us-schools/7537255.html">Chinese students</a> in the U.S. (and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/china-american-students-universities-f5f6e53cd5d3bc686590f2f961165281?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share">American students</a> in China).
Many argue that this trend is counterproductive for the U.S. Yingyi Ma at the Brookings Institution argued that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/us-security-and-immigration-policies-threaten-its-ai-leadership/">restrictive immigration policies against Chinese scholars threaten U.S. global leadership in the field of artificial intelligence</a>:
<blockquote>Some may wonder whether the United States should diversify its dependence on foreign talent. Of course, it should. However, there are few alternative sources of AI talent outside of China. While India has overtaken China in the overall number of international students in the United States, it falls significantly short in producing top AI talent, contributing just 5 percent compared to China’s 47 percent. This disparity is largely attributed to the differences in the two countries’ higher education systems: Among the top 25 global institutions recognized for leading AI research, China boasts six such institutions, while India has none.
Fortunately, many U.S.-educated Chinese talent want to stay and work for American companies, especially in the AI industry, as they offer better pay and work-life balance than companies in China. However, U.S. immigration policies create formidable barriers. The tightening of H-1B visa regulations has led to a sharp decline in approval rates, from 46.1 percent in fiscal year 2021 to just 14.6 percent in fiscal year 2024, with Indian applicants securing 70 percent of these visas (in 2021). Considering that the United States has established a comprehensive system to identify foreign agents through visa screenings and law enforcement framework, denying entry to any law-abiding, skilled foreign talent directly undermines America’s capacity for innovation. [<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/us-security-and-immigration-policies-threaten-its-ai-leadership/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
In the Made in China Journal on Tuesday, Yangyang Cheng argued that restrictive U.S. immigration practices against Chinese scholars have expanded in part due to great-power competition, and that <a href="https://madeinchinajournal.com/2024/04/23/troubling-the-water/">the U.S. motivations for such restrictions are rooted in a hypocritical and supremacist logic</a>:
<blockquote>The United States and China Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement (STA), signed in 1979 and generally renewed every five years, is hanging by a second six-month extension as the two sides struggle to reach a deal (Hua 2024). Opponents of the STA argue that Beijing has violated the ‘basis’ of ‘reciprocity’ and that ‘the benefits of scientific cooperation have overwhelmingly flowed one way’—towards China to the detriment of the United States (Razdan 2024; Issa et al. 2023). The transactional logic belies a greater paradox: when the agreement was established in 1979 and in the many years after, both sides understood that Chinese scientists would be learning from the United States to try to catch up. Why is reciprocity pressed as a contractual obligation only with China’s rise, when the former student has become a peer?
[…] Critics of US–China scientific exchange have pointed to Beijing’s protectionist stance and dictatorial regression as breaking the promise of ‘reciprocity’ (Razdan 2024). The proposed responses from the US side, however, are alarmingly like the restrictions put in place by the Chinese State. US lawmakers and tech executives routinely decry China’s use of new technologies to strengthen its military, expand state surveillance, and commit human rights abuses, while doubling down on similar developments and applications at home and with allied countries (AI Now Institute 2023). What they really care about, then, is not how science is used but who uses it. What they hope to protect are not the safety and wellbeing of humanity but their own privileges and power. By denying the Chinese people agency, they project their greed and bloodlust [onto] a faceless other. The national border offers a convenient demarcation and the contours of an enemy. The epithet of ‘communism’ erases the role of global capital as a contributor to and beneficiary of repression in China and elsewhere. The banner of liberal democracy is waved as a shield to excuse similar behaviour from the home team as justified and necessary to defeat the other side. [<a href="https://madeinchinajournal.com/2024/04/23/troubling-the-water/">Source</a>]</blockquote>
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