Day: April 19, 2023

Fatal Fire at a Beijing Hospital Draws Ire From Chinese Netizens

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WASHINGTON —  Public anger erupted on China’s internet over a deadly fire that the government had not disclosed eight hours after it started. While China’s state media outlets have started to report on the incident, largely citing an official announcement, online censorship remains. The fire, which erupted at the ChangFeng hospital in Beijing’s Fengtai District, has left 29 people dead as of Wednesday. The local fire department, in an announcement distributed by state media outlets, said they received a call about the fire at around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday.…

Explainer: China’s covert overseas ‘police stations’

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The FBI this week arrested two men accused of running a covert overseas police operation in New York on behalf of Chinese authorities. The charges followed a raid on a Fujianese community centre in Chinatown in October 2022. Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, both US citizens, are accused of using the premises to run an “unofficial police station”. Police in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada have opened investigations into similar allegations in their countries. On Wednesday, Chris Philp, a UK home office minister, said the outposts were “of…

Leaked Documents Show How Russia, China Collaborate on Censorship

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washington —  Leaked documents provided to VOA’s sister network RFE/RL confirm reports that Russia and China collaborate on censorship and internet control tactics. The materials detail documents and recordings said to be from closed-door meetings in 2017 and 2019 between officials from the Chinese and Russian agencies charged with policing the internet in both countries. In those documents and recordings — reported on by RFE/RL — officials from both countries share strategies for tracking dissent and controlling the internet, including requests for help to block “dangerous” news articles and advice…

US, Taiwan Defense Firms to Explore Weapons Co-Production

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Washington —  Defense contractors from the U.S. and Taiwan will resume in-person conversations next month to discuss possibilities of co-producing weapons, a move likely to ignite protests from China. The meeting, a regular event derailed by the outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020, comes during the ongoing Ukraine crisis and increasing tension in the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan-US Defense Industry Forum will meet on May 3 in Taipei, with a focus on co-production, integrating Taiwan’s industrial capabilities, and a range of defense cooperation issues, according to the U.S. Taiwan Business…

China’s foreign minister heads to Manila amid ‘big ups and downs’ in relations

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“These are all part of the considerations behind this trip.” Qin will meet his Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo during the three-day visit and they are expected to discuss “increasing and strengthening cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade, energy, infrastructure and people-to-people relations, among others”, according to a Philippine foreign ministry statement. Advertisement Observers say security issues including the South China Sea and Taiwan are likely to be high on Qin’s agenda during talks with Philippine officials. Tensions flared in the South China Sea in mid-February when Manila accused a…

Video of dancer in mosque inflames Uyghur anxieties about China’s attacks on religion

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A Chinese tourism advertisement portraying a medieval Buddhist fantasy, shot in the prayer hall of Xinjiang’s second-largest mosque, has alarmed diaspora Uyghurs, who call it a desecration.  They say it is particularly incensing during Ramadan, a time when mosques should host prayer and evening fast-breaking.  The promotional video, put out by a local propaganda office, features a bare-armed Uyghur woman as a dancer from “Women’s Kingdom,” a fictional polity whose queen sought to marry the Chinese protagonist of the classic Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West.  She twirls in…

Australian lawmakers meet with Dalai Lama, government-in-exile in northern India

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A four-member delegation from Australia’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet who met with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday offered support to preserve Tibet’s language and culture amid China’s efforts to restrict Tibet’s linguistic and cultural rights. MP Sharon Claydon, who also serves as deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Sen. Janet Rice, MP Sophie Scamps and MP Susan Templeman arrived in Dharamsala, India, on Monday for a four-day visit. The hillside city in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh is home to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of…

Tesla’s Profit Dropped Sharply in First Quarter as It Cut Prices

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Tesla’s profit fell sharply in the first three months of the year after it cut the prices of its electric vehicles, the company said on Wednesday. The carmaker, led by Elon Musk, said it had made $2.5 billion in the first quarter, a drop from $3.7 billion in the last three months of last year and $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Tesla sold more electric cars in the United States last year than all its competitors combined. But its market share slipped as traditional carmakers like General…

Cambodian court orders arrest of opposition party officials

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A provincial court ordered the arrest of two senior Candlelight Party officials on fraud charges, the latest such charges – which critics called politically motivated – that stem from political party registration documents filed last year. Seng Visal, the Candlelight Party’s finance officer in Prey Veng province, and Bin Chhong, a commune council member in Prey Veng, were arrested and charged with submitting fraudulent documents to the Ministry of Interior for last year’s local commune election candidate lists.  The two officials were members of the National Heart Party at the…

Myanmar’s junta-controlled Supreme Court to hear appeal by Aung San Suu Kyi

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Myanmar’s Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear an appeal by former State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi against her convictions on corruption charges and the violation of election and state secrets laws brought by the ruling junta, people close to the court said. The court has repeatedly rejected most of Suu Kyi’s appeals, though now it will hear her appeal against charges related to five cases dealing with the purchase and lease of a helicopter under the former civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government and the commission of…