Month: November 2022

US, Britain and India remain silent about death of Jiang Zemin

Chin@Strategy

Jiang’s “tenure will be remembered for China’s economic prosperity and stability”, Abushahab said. “China, under his leadership, galvanised international efforts to promote global development and uphold the rights of women by hosting the Beijing conference in 1995.” Reflecting the closer relationship between Moscow and Beijing, characterised as a “no limits” partnership shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya drew a comparison between Jiang’s reign and contemporary China. Advertisement Jiang “was an outstanding statesman and China’s latest period of new history is intricately linked with his [rule],…

Study: South Africa Resilient to Chinese Attempts to Influence Media 

Chin@Strategy

Johannesburg, South Africa —  South Africa’s free press has been largely successful at resisting efforts by the Chinese government to influence its content, say analysts, affirming a recent study by the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House. “In South Africa, we have a deep historical suspicion of state media,” said Anton Harber, professor of journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. South Africa’s wariness of state media, he said, stems from the country’s legacy of apartheid, the former state policy of racial segregation and discrimination that ended in 1994.…

NATO Nations Grow More Receptive to U.S. Pleas to Confront China

Chin@Strategy

The discussion on China marked a shift toward a harder line on the challenges and threats it represents, especially among foreign ministers from previously more ambivalent countries, like Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal, some of whom called for less talk and more action to build a China strategy. Areas of concern included investment screening to protect key industries, infrastructure, cyber, technology and intellectual property, especially as countries are feeling the reach of China domestically and fear the West may be falling behind in important areas like artificial intelligence. The focus…

Tokyo Court Says Japan’s Lack of Legal Protection for Same-Sex Marriage Is Unconstitutional

Chin@Strategy

A Tokyo District Court found on Wednesday that Japan’s lack of legal protection for same-sex marriages violated the constitution but said the government’s lack of legislative action on the matter was not illegal. Japan is currently the only G-7 nation that continues to ban same-sex marriage and does not allow same-sex couples to marry, inherit assets and denies parental rights. The Tokyo court threw out demands of $7,175 (1 million yen) in compensation for each of the eight plaintiffs in the case who asserted the law was discriminatory. Article 24…

Mute Protest: Chinese crowds hold up blank sheets to hit out at lockdowns, censorship

Chin@Strategy

They have become a symbol of China’s recent wave of protests: Blank, white sheets of paper held aloft by demonstrators to signify their opposition to anti-virus lockdowns, censorship and freedom of speech. As videos of crowds holding up paper sheets and chanting slogans flooded the internet last weekend, Chinese-language social media posts have come to call the demonstrations in more than a dozen cities the “white paper revolution.”  Authorities have since moved quickly to squelch the protests, arresting some demonstrators and sending university students home, in a bid to quickly…

The Guardian view on the future of China’s unrest: more complex than it seems | Editorial

Chin@Strategy

Among the Communist rhetoric cleverly repurposed by China’s anti-zero-Covid protesters is a phrase that Mao Zedong employed: a single spark can start a prairie fire. When a political system is so rigid, observers can easily fall prey to one of two conflicting tendencies. The first is to seize upon any significant unrest as the first crack in the edifice, which could bring the whole system down – as when the death of Mohamed Bouazizi precipitated the Arab spring. Since such collapses are usually astonishing at the time, even if explicable…

Australia Shocks Denmark 1-0 to Move Into World Cup Last 16

Chin@Strategy

AL WAKRAH, Qatar —  Australia upset Denmark 1-0 on Wednesday to qualify for the World Cup knockout phase for the first time in 16 years thanks to a fine solo goal from Mathew Leckie. Australia contained Denmark at the Al Janoub Stadium before stinging the Scandinavians on a counter-attack in the 60th minute when Leckie burst into space, wrong-footed defender Joakim Maehle and fired low past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand brought on all the attacking firepower he could muster as he desperately sought the goals that have…

INTERVIEW: ‘They plan to rule with fear, but the people are no longer afraid’

Chin@Strategy

Duwa Lashi La is the acting president of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, made up of democratically elected lawmakers who were ousted when the military staged a coup in February 2021. Though the junta claims to be the legitimate government of the people of Myanmar, the NUG claims that more than half of the country is not under military control. Instead, it is held by a combination of armed ethnic groups and people’s defense forces, militias formed by citizens opposed to the junta. In an interview with Radio…

Chinese Students Take Aim at Beijing During Seoul Solidarity Protest

Chin@Strategy

Seoul —  Over 100 people, including dozens of Chinese students, called for an end to China’s zero-COVID policy and lashed out at the country’s authoritarian political system during a demonstration Wednesday in South Korea’s capital, the latest overseas show of support for protests that have swept mainland China. The protesters, who gathered on the street in Seoul’s Hongdae neighborhood, held signs reading “Dictator out” and “Free China” as they called for Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to step down. Others held blank white sheets of paper, which…