Biden Criticizes Iran and China on Human Rights and Security Issues

In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, President Biden criticized the governments of Iran and China for their human rights records, while vowing that the United States would always stand up for those rights. Alluding to the protests that have erupted in Iran over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police last week allegedly for violating dress codes, Mr. Biden said the United States stood with “the brave citizens and brave women of Iran, who…

‘We’re on That Bus, Too’: In China, a Deadly Crash Triggers Covid Trauma

After a bus accident killed at least 27 people being transferred to a Covid quarantine facility on Sunday, the Chinese public staged a widespread online protest against the government’s harsh pandemic policy. It was a moment of collective grief and anger, with a heavy dose of shame, guilt and despair. After nearly three years of constant lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines, people asked how they could give the government the power to deprive them of their dignity, livelihood, mental health and even life; how they could fail to protect their…

China’s Public Opinion Is Shifting Away From Russia

Advertisement At the beginning of the Ukraine war, I wrote an article for The Diplomat telling the world it was impossible for China to support Russia invasion of Ukraine. It has been proved correct by the facts of the war; the developments at the 2022 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit also point in this direction. The Ukrainian war has been going on for seven months, but Russia received little recognition even from the international organizations it leads. In the Collective Security Treaty Organization, for example, only Belarus supports Russia; in…