Day: January 25, 2023

INTERVIEW: ‘Our interviewees share sensitive stories that could get them arrested’

Chin@Strategy

A group of Chinese students at overseas universities has set up a political magazine to carry forward the momentum of the “white paper” protest movement, a wave of spontaneous demonstrations that swept major cities in late November. Sparked by a fatal lockdown fire in an apartment building in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi, the protests also took aim at the rolling lockdowns, mass surveillance and compulsory testing of the zero-COVID policy. Some protesters held up blank sheets of A4 printer paper and others called on President Xi Jinping to step down…

No forbidden zones: Vietnam’s Communist Party continues corruption crackdown

Chin@Strategy

The Communist Party of Vietnam marked the start of the Lunar New Year with a pledge to continue its crackdown on corruption under the slogan “no forbidden zones.” On Wednesday, Deputy Head of the Central Committee for Internal Affairs Nguyen Thai Hoc told the Tuoi Tre Newspaper the party had met its goals in 2022 and would tackle more long-standing cases in 2023. Last year, the party’s Central Committee, the Politburo and the Secretariat disciplined 47 officials under the supervision of the Politburo and Management Secretariat, 15 more than the…

INTERVIEW: ‘They keep texting my friends and relatives to get me to go back to China’

Chin@Strategy

Chinese dissident Hu Junxiong has taken on an unexpected and unpaid job during his years in exile in Thailand – maintaining a monument to his fellow Chinese who died while part of the brutal forced labor effort under the Japanese army to build a bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi. The veteran of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, which ended in the bloody Tiananmen massacre of June 4 in Beijing, said he prefers to keep a low profile since arriving in Bangkok in 2015 and gaining official refugee status…

US, Chinese, Russian Officials Scramble to Visit Africa

Chin@Strategy

Washington —  Top Chinese, Russian and American officials are scrambling this month to visit African nations and pledge their commitment to the world’s fastest-growing continent. As President Joe Biden prepares for a visit later this year, several of his top officials have recently visited Africa. There, they must balance the desire to secure the continent’s support against Russian aggression and Chinese ambitions with their promise to work to benefit Africa. Washington says this is not about countering Russian and Chinese ambitions — though the U.S. has expressed dismay over African…

Chinese Engineer Gets Eight Years in US for Spying

Chin@Strategy

Washington —  A Chinese engineer was sentenced to eight years in a U.S. prison Wednesday for providing Beijing with information on possible recruitment targets. Ji Chaoqun, who came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2013 and later enlisted in the Army Reserve, was accused of identifying American scientists and engineers that could be recruited by the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security. The body is a key Chinese intelligence unit involved in numerous schemes to illegally obtain U.S. industrial and trade secrets. Ji was arrested in September 2018…

North Korean capital Pyongyang on lockdown as COVID spreads through the city

Chin@Strategy

North Korean authorities have locked down the capital city of Pyongyang due to ‘rising’ cases of an unspecified respiratory illness according to media reports citing a central government notice, and sources confirmed to Radio Free Asia that multiple people in the city have tested positive for COVID-19. News of the lockdown began to surface on Wednesday morning with Seoul-based NK News and the Russian embassy in Pyongyang reporting that according to the notice, residents would not be allowed to leave their homes for five days. A source in the northwestern…

Chinese engineer Ji Chaoqun gets 8-year sentence in US for spying

Chin@Strategy

A Chinese engineer was sentenced to eight years in a US prison Wednesday for providing Beijing with information on possible recruitment targets. Ji Chaoqun, who came to the US on a student visa in 2013 and later enlisted in the army reserves, was accused of identifying American scientists and engineers that could be recruited by the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security. The body is a key Chinese intelligence unit involved in numerous schemes to illegally obtain US industrial and trade secrets. Ji was arrested in September 2018 on charges…

Six lifestyle choices to slow memory decline named in 10-year study

Chin@Strategy

A combination of healthy lifestyle choices such as eating well, regularly exercising, playing cards and socialising at least twice a week may help slow the rate of memory decline and reduce the risk of dementia, a decade-long study suggests. Memory is a fundamental function of daily life that continuously declines as people age, impairing quality of life and productivity, and increasing the risk of dementia. Evidence from previous research has been insufficient to evaluate the effect of healthy lifestyle on memory trajectory, but now a study suggests that combining multiple…

Tesla’s Profit Jumped 12% in Fourth Quarter

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Tesla said Wednesday that profit in the fourth quarter of 2022 rose 12 percent from the previous quarter, above Wall Street expectations, capping a tumultuous year that included intensifying competition, supply chain disruptions and concerns about the behavior of its chief executive, Elon Musk. Net profit for the quarter was $3.7 billion, up from $3.3 billion in the third quarter, Tesla said. For the full year, Tesla’s profit more than doubled to $12.6 billion from $5.5 billion in 2021. Sales for the year, including revenue from solar panels and other…

Chinese authorities detain Tibetan writer for contacting people in exile

Chin@Strategy

Chinese authorities in Tibet have detained a 30-year-old Tibetan writer and former teacher for allegedly contacting exiles outside the country, sources told Radio Free Asia. The writer, known only as Palgon, was arrested at his home in August 2022 and has been incommunicado ever since. “There is still no information on where he is being held at the moment,” a source inside Tibet told RFA.  “His family members were also not informed or given proper reasons for his arrest other than Palgon’s contact with people in exile to offer prayers…