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Pohan Wu, a Taiwanese exchange student in Paris, stood behind barricades on Boulevard Saint-Germain, his eyes trained on the road where Chinese President Xi Jinping’s motorcade would soon pass. It was March 26, 2019, and Xi was in the French capital to discuss trade with European leaders.

Armed with a teal cloth sign that read, “I am Taiwanese. I stand for Taiwan’s independence,” Wu planned to protest Beijing’s policy that asserts Taiwan is part of China. He waited patiently until he saw the president’s custom Hongqi, a luxury Chinese car, and unfolded his banner. Within seconds, a French military officer grabbed Wu and stripped him of the sign. In a video he posted online, Wu can be heard shouting “Taiwan independence” in Chinese as the officer attempts to subdue him.

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It was not the only time a policing body outside

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33717406

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The Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, MEP Mounir Satouri, and the Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, MEP Engin Eroglu, have jointly addressed a letter to the Chinese Ambassador to the European Union concerning the suspicious death of prominent Tibetan Buddhist leader, Tulku Hungkar Dorje. In parallel, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights has sent a separate letter to the Vietnamese Ambassador to the EU, reflecting similar concerns.

Both letters express grave concern and alarm over the unexplained circumstances of Tulku Hungkar Dorje’s death and the subsequent cremation of his body in Vietnam without the consent of his family.

The Chairs call on both Chinese and Vie

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2631767

Archived version

The European Union has not signaled any reciprocation as China announces lifting of sanction from several members of the EU Parliament, imposed in 2021 as a response to EU’s sanctions on some Chinese officials, citing human rights violations in Xinjiang.

The lifting of sanctions means that the MEPs will now be able to travel to China. The move is being perceived as a potential kick starter for better relations between China and the European countries.

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The diplomatic battle between China and the European Union peaked in 2021 when EU took the first step, sanctioning Chinese officials. China responded in kind and sanctioned some MEPs. This rift dimmed the chances of signing of a trade and investment deal between China and EU which was finalized at the en

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With a population of 1.4 billion, China has, in theory, a huge domestic market. But there's a problem. They don't appear willing to spend money while the country's economic outlook is uncertain.

This has not been prompted by the trade war – but by the collapse of the housing market. Many Chinese families invested their life savings in their homes, only to watch prices plummet in the last five years.

Housing developers continued to build even as the property market crumbled. It's thought that China's entire population would not fill all the empty apartments across the country.

The former deputy head of China's statistics bureau, He Keng, admitted two years ago that the most "extreme estimate" is that there are now enough vacant homes for 3 billion people.

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And it's not just house prices that worry middle-class Chinese families.

They are concerned about whether the government can offer them a pension – over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently ag

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Children’s toys sold on major Chinese e-commerce platforms contain toxic substances at levels far exceeding safety standards, South Korea says

The Seoul Metropolitan Government officials said they tested 25 toys purchased from global platforms including Temu, Shein, and AliExpress. Four products failed to meet domestic safety regulations, with one “keyring doll” found to contain phthalate plasticizer (DEHP) at concentrations up to 278 times the permitted limit in its face, hands, and feet.

DEHP, or di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a potential human carcinogen. It is also known to disrupt endocrine function and has been linked to reproductive harm.

Other items flagged in the inspection included modeling clay that contained CMIT (chloromethylisothiazolinone) and MIT (methylisothiazolinone), chemical preserva

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33585218

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Nuria Zyden came to Ireland in 2009, became a naturalised Irish citizen and has three children who were born in the Republic.

A Uyghur, she grew up in Xinjiang, a majority Muslim province where locals are regarded with extreme suspicion by the Chinese Government.

“As a Uyghur person, growing up we were seen as politically disloyal and culturally disadvantaged,” Ms Zyden told Newstalk Breakfast.

“The State media frequently portrayed Uyghurs as extremists and discrimination in jobs and education left us with limited opportunities.

“After 9/11, the Chinese Government rebranded its repressions as a war on terror, using it as a pretext to expand mass surveillance.”

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Determined to keep her culture alive and speak out against Bei

Podcast episode associated with this op-ed available on Ezra Klein Show feed or here.

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On a chilly afternoon in the spring of 2021, while awaiting an extradition hearing in Bordeaux, France, Businessman H. received an unexpected call from an old friend and business partner.

Jack Ma was on the line.

H. was surprised to hear from Ma, the tech titan and one of China’s richest men, according to a transcript of the call.

Ma said he was calling at the behest of Chinese authorities, who were seeking H.’s immediate return to China.

“Did they approach you?” H. asked.

“Mmh,” Ma acknowledged. “They said I’m the only one who can persuade you to return.”

A few weeks earlier, H. had been arrested by French authorities on the basis of a red notice, an alert circulated among police forces worldwide by Interpol, the international police organization that critics say is often misused by authoritarian regimes.

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Despite attempts a

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33521285

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TDs in Ireland [a member of the Dáil Éireann -the Lower House of the Houses of the Oireachtas elected by the people of Ireland- is commonly referred to as a Teachta Dála (TD) or Deputy] increasingly regard China as an “international security issue” amid complaints about the bullying and intimidation of Irish residents, a journalist has said.

The Chinese State has long taken a different attitude to free speech to Ireland’s and individuals who criticise Beijing can face harsh consequences.

On The Pat Kenny Show, Irish Times journalist Colm Keena told the story of Nuria Zyden - a woman from China’s Uyghur minority.

“She came to Ireland in 2009, is a naturalised Irish citizen, has three Irish born children living here,” he said.

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*Key Findings *

• In March 2025, senior members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) living in exile were targeted with a spearphishing campaign aimed at delivering Windows-based malware capable of conducting remote surveillance against its targets.
• The malware was delivered through a trojanized version of a legitimate open source word processing and spell check tool developed to support the use of the Uyghur language. The tool was originally built by a developer known and trusted by the targeted community.
• Although the malware itself was not particularly advanced, the delivery of the malware was extremely well customized to reach the target population and technical artifacts show that activity related to this campaign began in at least May of 2024.
• The ruse employed by the attackers replicates a typical pattern: threat actors likely aligne

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Nations Office at Geneva were meant to embody the 20th-century ideal of a postwar world — when countries might seek to avert conflict through diplomacy. During the thousands of meetings held at the Palais des Nations each year, delegates press openly and passionately for their convictions. And yet for 15 human rights activists in March 2024, the U.N. complex held risks.

Fearing retribution from the Chinese government against their families in mainland China and Hong Kong, several of the activists were no longer willing to set foot inside the diplomatic site. Instead, they gathered for a secret meeting on the top floor of a nondescript office building nearby. They were there to discuss human rights abuses in China and Hong Kong with the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk.

“We took all of the necessary precautions,

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33482669

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Working with the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, the Guardian found more than 150 posts from 29 accounts on three days in August 2024 that sought to draw the attention of anti-immigrant groups and the far right to [exiled dissident Finn] Lau and other Hong Kong exiles. Cybersecurity experts who have reviewed the posts say they exhibited some similarities to a major online influence operation that a Chinese security agency is suspected of orchestrating.

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Lau and his fellow activists have been called traitors, with bounties on their heads that are three times what the authorities offer for murderers. Relatives back home have been arrested and intimidated. As he read the posts, Lau suspected a chilling new tactic: an attempt to

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While condemning routine operations by regional states, China itself routinely engages in more alarming maritime provocations. On April 19, 2025, Taiwan was on high alert after the Gulangyu, a cruise vessel operated by Chinese entities but registered in Bermuda, came dangerously close—just two nautical miles—to Taiwan’s Hengchun Peninsula. Notably, the vessel, capable of carrying approximately 1,800 passengers—a force equivalent to a military battalion—broadcasted provocative messages on social media platforms reading, “Taiwan is China.”

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China’s strategy of aggressive maritime coercion wrapped in diplomatic accusations against others risks undermining regional stability. The hypocrisy inherent in Beijing’s tactics—highlighted starkly by these simultaneous incidents—exposes the underlying agenda of

China has approved the construction of ten new nuclear reactors, making 2025 the fourth consecutive year that it has endorsed the construction of at least that number, as reported by Bloomberg.

China has 30 reactors under construction – almost half of the total worldwide.

By 2030, China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33309810

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[Analysis by Nomura, a financial services group.]

• Some USD560 bn of China’s annual exports may need to find new markets, which can be disruptive to economies
• 45 countries that experienced large increases in their shares of imports from China are generally the ones that experienced the sharpest slowdowns in manufacturing growth and where evidence of disinflation was strongest
• This year, with a US-China trade war raging, the results illuminate just how exposed economies are to the flood of China imports turning into a deluge

With the US-China trade war in full force, many emerging economies, particularly those in Asia, are exposed to the flood of inexpensive Chinese imports turning into a deluge.

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Statistics suggest that Chi

Archived

China Mobilizes Museums for Propaganda: Museum directors are told they should focus on documenting that “border regions” such as Tibet and Xinjiang were always Chinese

Now, museums are also mobilized for Chinese propaganda. The [Chinese Communist Party] CCP’s primary interest is telling what Xi Jinping calls the “China story” and emphasizing that “border regions” such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, or Tibet were “always part of China.”

Pan Yue, director of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, presided in Beijing on April 16 at the First National Training Session for Museum Directors. Museums, he said, should counter “incorrect historical interpretations,” including those that “attempt to position the Central Plains against border regions, the Han against non-Han groups, and Han culture against those of ethnic minorities.”

Each cultural artifact and historical ac

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33304290

• Three European funding groups say no new funding with Chinese agency since 2021
• Funders concerned about risks from China's Data Security Law
• U.S., Britain also concerned about way law could affect collaboration
• Funding suspension could hamper research into global health issues

Several of Europe’s biggest funders of scientific collaboration with China, in fields such as viruses and air quality, have put bilateral research programmes on hold due to concerns over Chinese data protection laws, funding agencies said.

The suspension, which Reuters is reporting for the first time following queries to the agencies on funding, highlights the widening impact of a Chinese data protection law that has already impeded some business projects, as international institutions and companies assess how to navigate the regulations.

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While many countries require various protections and privacy safeguards for re

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33294557

Archived

In February 2025, a London neighborhood council and the London Metropolitan Police withdrew their opposition to the Chinese government’s plans to construct a huge “super embassy” on the grounds of the old Royal Mint, only days after thousands of people had participated in a protest against the project. Embassies and consulates are meant to provide useful services to citizens from the home country and promote comity and understanding between nations. However, the London authorities’ about-face in favor of construction of the 5.5-acre Chinese facility has sparked fears among United Kingdom residents from China—some of whom are the targets of bounties imposed by Beijing—that it could be used to enable acts of transnational repression. Their worries are not unfounded, especially considering the

In a case that has drawn international attention, renowned Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was sentenced to 11 months in prison following a closed tribunal in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Lu, charged with 'illegally crossing the border,' was initially detained in Laos while attempting to join his family in the United States, despite having legal travel documents.

Lu, a prominent figure known for defending clients in politically sensitive cases, has faced relentless state scrutiny. Despite securing temporary release in 2023 after being extradited back to China, he was re-arrested in 2024 as authorities pursued border-crossing allegations. His ongoing legal battles have spotlighted Beijing's expanded reach in transnational repression, igniting calls for international human rights advocacy.

During his recent trial, which barred public access, Lu's defense argued for a reduced sentence based on time served, including his Lao detention. The appeal was dismissed, and he was fined 10,000