Day: January 5, 2024

Lie of the land: China’s rural women struggle for land rights in the courts, despite legal protections

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The decision was made among the villagers themselves, who concluded that Zhou’s case was not valid because she married someone from outside the village. The court stayed out of what it said was the village’s democratic decision. In rural China, there are thousands of other cases just like Zhou’s, usually referred to as “ married-out women”. They are widows, women who married men from outside their community, or women who moved away and later returned to care for ageing parents. But due to vague laws and the majority rule in…

First-Time Voters Could Swing Taiwan’s Election

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Taipei, Taiwan —  More than a million young Taiwanese who just turned 20 will vote for the first time in this month’s presidential election. According to Taiwan’s Central Election Commission, there are nearly 1.03 million first-time voters aged 20 to 23 in this presidential election, accounting for almost 6% of the total voter population of 19.5 million. With a voting rate of more than 70% among this age group in the 2020 polls, winning over young voters could be key to taking the election on January 13. So, what issues…

Survivors Found in Homes Smashed by Japan Quake; 200 Still Missing

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WAJIMA, Japan —  A woman was pulled carefully from the rubble 72 hours after a series of powerful quakes started rattling Japan’s western coast. Despite rescue efforts, the death toll has grown to at least 98 people. The number of missing was lowered to 211 as of Saturday. An older man was found alive Wednesday in a collapsed home in Suzu, one of the hardest-hit cities in Ishikawa Prefecture. His daughter called out, “Dad, dad,” as a flock of firefighters got him out on a stretcher, praising him for holding…

China needs ‘groundbreaking’ policy changes to embrace disruptive technologies

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This model has been adopted by other economies in East Asia during their development in the second half of 20th century. How to achieve a shift from the selective industrial policy paradigm to the functional policy paradigm has become critical and urgentHuang Shaoqing “As frontier technologies, no one knows what technology truly has promising prospects, which could ultimately be screened out by the market through competition,” Huang Shaoqing, a professor of economics at the Antai College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said in a report. “Therefore,…

Jailing of High-Profile Journalist Shocks Mongolia’s Media Industry

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washington —  The jailing of journalists in Mongolia is rare, which makes the arrest of Unurtsetseg Naran, one of the country’s most influential reporters, all the more shocking to the country’s media. Unurtsetseg carved out a reputation for herself in Mongolia as a reporter unafraid to chase down officials for answers. As the editor-in-chief of the news site Zarig, she has fought over a dozen defamation cases in the past five years. Then came an arrest last month. Initially detained over accusations of spreading false information and contempt of court,…

Mercedes-Benz Investigates How Its Cars Surface in North Korea Despite Ban

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German automaker Mercedes-Benz is launching an investigation into how its high-end vehicles have turned up in North Korea despite sanctions that ban the export of luxury goods to the country. Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, sent a statement to VOA’s Korean Service on Wednesday that the company “has had no business connection with North Korea for far more than 15 years” and does not know how its vehicles “have come to the use of the government of North Korea.” The statement continued, “To prevent deliveries to North Korea, Mercedes-Benz has…

Q&A: Taiwan AI Labs Founder Warns of China’s Generative AI Influencing Election

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taipei, taiwan —  China has ramped up efforts to influence Taiwan’s January 13 presidential and legislative election in recent weeks, with some experts pointing to the dangers of disinformation campaigns created by generative artificial intelligence – which can produce text and other types of content. Taiwan AI Labs founder Ethan Tu’s company has used generative AI to identify and publicize social media information manipulation trends. He told VOA during a video interview on Tuesday that Taiwan must increase efforts aimed at countering cognitive warfare – efforts to influence Taiwanese attitudes…

Retracted study was based on unethically collected Uyghur DNA samples, experts contend

Chin@Strategy

The recent retraction of an academic journal article that discussed the genetic information of Uyghurs and Kazakhs in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region has raised questions and concerns about ethical standards in scientific research, as people familiar with the study believe that genetic samples were obtained under duress. In June, Elsevier, a Dutch publisher, announced the retraction of a scientific article published in 2019 in its journal “Forensic Science International: Genetics.” The retraction was attributed to the failure to meet necessary ethical approvals in scientific research, The Guardian reported. The deleted…

Ethnic army overruns junta command center in Myanmar’s Kokang region

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Ethnic rebels have overrun a key military command center in northern Myanmar, taking control of the city of Laukkai and accepting the surrender of hundreds of soldiers, in what analysts called a stunning blow to the junta’s grasp on power in the region. Fighters with the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, stormed the junta’s Kokang regional command center, the largest base in northern Shan state near the Chinese border late on Thursday, prompting soldiers in the facility to lay down their arms, despite the military’s attempt to defend…

Myanmar’s Annual Amnesty Criticized for Including Few Political Prisoners

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WASHINGTON —  In what has become a customary move to mark Myanmar’s Independence Day on January 4, the military junta announced a mass amnesty, releasing nearly 10,000 prisoners. The action, however, was criticized by political and human rights activists who said it lacks political significance, with less than 100 political prisoners among those granted amnesty. Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and co-founder of the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, or AAPP, a Myanmar human rights monitoring group, expressed concerns about the release’s impact on public safety. In a statement…