Legislation introduced in Congress this week would provide new tools to hold Beijing accountable for its persecution of ethnic Uyghurs, including through the appointment of an expert on human rights violations in northwest China’s Xinjiang region. The Uyghur Policy Act of 2021, introduced to the House on Tuesday by U.S. Representative Young Kim of California, calls for the State Department to appoint a Special Coordinator for Uyghur Issues, would require Uyghur language training for foreign service officers, and would see a Uyghur-fluent officer assigned to a U.S. diplomatic and consular…
Day: December 1, 2022
Tweets Offer 2 Views of China’s Deceased Former Leader Jiang Zemin
WASHINGTON — On Thursday, a day after Jiang Zemin’s death, Chinese newspapers turned their front pages black and Chinese flags were lowered to half-staff on government buildings and Chinese embassies to mark the death of China’s former leader, whose funeral is scheduled for Tuesday. On China’s heavily censored social media, users posted mostly positive comments focused on Jiang’s legacy since his death Wednesday. These remarks contrasted with posts from experts and Twitter users located outside China who compared the relatively more liberal times he oversaw with the increasingly authoritarian environment…
US Senators Warn China Against Violent Crackdown on Protests
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of more than 40 U.S. senators warned China on Thursday against any violent crackdown on protests there, saying it would do “extraordinary damage” to the U.S.-China relationship. \The 42 senators, led by Democrat Jeff Merkley and Republicans Mitch McConnell, Dan Sullivan and Todd Young, said in a letter to China’s Washington Ambassador Qin Gang that they were following the protests in China very carefully. “We are also closely watching the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) reaction to them,” the senators’ letter said, noting Beijing’s violent crackdown…
World Cup Redemption for Japan Coach 29 Years Later in Qatar
AL RAYYAN, Qatar — The “Agony of Doha” came 29 years ago, and Hajime Moriyasu experienced it firsthand as a midfielder on Japan’s national soccer team. He’s now the coach, and he’s made amends. Japan won its World Cup group Thursday after beating 2010 champion Spain, 2-1, at the Khalifa International Stadium. Last week, the team defeated 2014 champion Germany by the same score at the same venue. As time was winding down against Spain, Moriyasu was thinking about that game in Qatar against Iraq in 1993 that cost the…
For China, No Easy Way Out of ‘Zero-COVID’ Policy
WASHINGTON — As much of the world returned to some kind of new normal in 2022, China remains the only country sticking to a strict “zero-COVID” policy to control the spread of a global pandemic. While credited with saving lives, the policy slowed the economy, exacerbated supply-chain disruptions, cost millions of jobs, forced a large portion of Chinese residents into some form of lockdown for months, and is now, experts say, forcing Beijing’s leadership to seek a way out of a problem they don’t admit having. Over the last weekend…
Biden’s Reaction to Unrest in China, Iran, Questioned by Critics
With major street protests erupting in Iran and China in recent weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is facing questions about its response to the unrest roiling two of the most significant U.S. adversaries. To date, the administration’s responses to events in both China and Iran have been mostly measured, though distinct. In the case of Iran, where months of protests followed the death in police custody of a young woman accused of not wearing a headscarf appropriately, the president himself has criticized Tehran’s policies. As early as October, he…
Rights Group Alleges Russia Supplied Weapons Used in Airstrike on Myanmar School
washington — Russian-made helicopters and weapons were used in an airstrike in September that left 12 people dead — half of them children — at a Myanmar school, according to a human rights group that monitors violations in the Southeast Asian country. Russia, which has diplomatic ties with Myanmar, denies the accusation. The group, Myanmar Witness, made its allegations in a recent report detailing what it says happened at the Let Yet Kone school located on the compound of a Buddhist monastery in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township.…
Biden signals to Macron openness to Inflation Reduction Act ‘tweaks’ to cut reliance on China
Macron, who is on an official state visit to the US, said he was “confident” that “we can work out some of the differences that exist”. France was not looking for an exemption but “simply to discuss the consequences of the legislation” on some projects being developed in Europe, he added, because “there’s such a difference in subsidies that these projects might come to an end”. Advertisement Macron said the two countries had “no alternative but to work together” and for that reason their approaches needed to be synchronised towards…
Island in Solomons spurns China aid although dire roads make life tough
China’s money isn’t welcome in Malaita, a fiercely independent province of the Solomon Islands led by a politician who says it’s wrong to befriend “these people” who don’t believe in democracy. But if any place needs money, it is Malaita. The mountainous island’s roads are crumbling and its bridges rickety. Its hospital is dilapidated. One surgeon serves about 160,000 people. Malaita is small – as big as six Singapores – but locals say that to sell their produce at the market in Auki, the provincial capital, they must leave at…
Protests in China Prompt Chinese Students in US to Speak Out
washington — Chinese citizens living abroad have been attending rallies across the U.S. this week in support of myriad protests that have been taking place throughout China. They are the first mass demonstrations in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests for political freedom in Beijing. The current demonstrators are seeking freedom from China’s “zero-COVID” policy. In the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, Washington and New York, Chinese students and residents at rallies have been critical of the Chinese government and the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, chanting in Mandarin “the…