Month: January 2023

China Province: Single Women Can Legally Have Babies

Chin@Strategy

beijing —  Health authorities in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan will allow unmarried individuals to raise a family and enjoy benefits reserved for married couples, in the latest effort to bolster a falling birth rate. The government dictates that only married women are legally allowed to give birth, but with marriage and birth rates having fallen to record lows in recent years, provincial authorities revamped a 2019 rule to cover singles who want to have children. From February 15, married couples and any individuals who want offspring will be allowed…

Blinken visit unlikely to fix US-China differences, but Russia a possible area of progress: analysts

Chin@Strategy

However, differences over Taiwan present the sharpest areas of disagreement owing to assessments of a possible armed conflict across the Taiwan Strait, making Blinken’s trip crucial in offsetting military rhetoric with diplomacy, said Michael Swaine, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, a Washington think tank. [embedded content] “In a larger context of growing distrust over the overall motives of the other side in which China sees the US as supposedly trying to weaken and contain China [and] the US sees China supposedly trying to achieve dominance in Asia ……

US General’s Bellicose China Memo Highlights Civilian-Military Divide

Chin@Strategy

A controversial memo from a U.S. Air Force general predicting war with China in 2025 may reflect a growing disconnect between the way the United States’ civilian and military leadership view the relationship between the world’s two largest economic powers. In the memo, which began circulating online over the weekend, General Michael Minihan opens with the stark statement, “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.” Minihan, in charge of the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command (AMC), a 5,000-person unit focused on logistics, offers…

TikTok’s chief executive to testify before Congress in March

Chin@Strategy

“ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data. Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms,” Rodgers said. “Big Tech has increasingly become a destructive force in American society. The Energy and Commerce Committee has been at the forefront of asking Big Tech CEOs – from Facebook to Twitter to Google – to answer for their companies’ actions.…

Lawyer says Taiwan’s restrictions on Hong Kong migrants ‘unreasonable’

Chin@Strategy

An experienced immigration lawyer has hit out at Taiwanese officials over ongoing restrictions on Hong Kong migrants, which appear to run counter to its democratic government’s vocal opposition to China’s treatment of dissent in the city. While it is theoretically possible for a Hong Konger to achieve residency in Taiwan within one year of arriving on a different visa, many with connections to mainland China – which has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan – or who have served in the city’s government find their cases dragging out far longer than…

Biden team weighs fully cutting off Huawei from US suppliers

Chin@Strategy

Last week, the Biden administration persuaded the Netherlands and Japan to join with the US in restricting exports of advanced semiconductor manufacturing machinery to China. Huawei was once one of the world’s largest buyers of electronic components and a hugely important part of the supply chain because of its position in the handset and networking equipment industries. Trump’s ban on certain sales wiped out huge amounts of revenue for companies including Broadcom Inc. Advertisement But the Commerce Department continued to allow some other products to be supplied to Huawei. Under…

Chinese police find hanged body of teenager who had been missing for 3 months

Chin@Strategy

Chinese police have found the body of a teenager who had been missing for more than three months hanging in a grain warehouse a few minutes’ walk from his school, one of a slew of young people reported missing around China in recent months. Police in Jiangxi province’s Qianshan county found the body of Hu Xinyu – a 15-year-old student at Zhiyuan High School who was reported missing on Oct. 14 – after receiving a tip-off, according to a report in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily. Hu…

ASEAN chair Indonesia: Won’t resort to ‘megaphone diplomacy’ with Myanmar

Chin@Strategy

Indonesia said Monday it would be “impossible” to resolve the crisis in Myanmar during Jakarta’s term as ASEAN chair and that it wouldn’t resort to “megaphone diplomacy” to force the Burmese junta to implement a regional roadmap to peace.  The Indonesian government would urge Myanmar’s military rulers to take steps to allow the Southeast Asian bloc to facilitate a national dialogue to end violence that has followed the military coup, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in parliament.  “We know the history of Myanmar, the complexities that Myanmar is facing, so…

U.S. Human Rights Commission calls on Vietnam to release political prisoner

Chin@Strategy

The U.S. Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission called on Vietnam on Jan. 20 to release prominent political prisoner Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who has now served 13 years of a 16-year sentence. Before he was detained, Thuc was a well-known blogger and businessman in Vietnam, working as the general director of One Connection Internet, a phone and internet company.  He was convicted in 2010 on charges including promoting anti-government propaganda and attempting to overthrow the government – charges he denies.  Several of those convicted in the same case as…

Myanmar refugees arrested by Indian police in Manipur

Chin@Strategy

Nearly 150 refugees escaping violence in Myanmar have been arrested by Indian police in the eastern border state of Manipur over the past several days, sources in the area told RFA, including at least 50 children or minors. About 50 refugees were arrested in a Monday morning police raid on the villages of Vitok and Min Non, residents in the area said. Another 80 Myanmar refugees were arrested on Jan. 27 during an inspection by local Manipur authorities stemming from a seemingly unrelated dispute between two villages near the Burmese…