Under intense questioning by UN experts over two days, a delegation of 40 Chinese officials staunchly denied any human rights violations against Uyghur and Tibetan minorities, or efforts to eradicate their religious lives, as documented in UN and other reports. In two six-hour sessions on Wednesday and Thursday in Geneva, the Chinese officials were quizzed by 18 experts from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or CESCR, about the situations in Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, the autonomous region where the predominantly Muslim Uyghur people live. The…
Author: Chin@Strategy
US Pentagon’s top China official travels to Taiwan, sources say
Chiu, asked whether Chase would be coming, said “those who are friendly to us” are very welcome,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a parliament session. “I won’t explain the details,” he said. “I won’t explain until I get formal notification.” Advertisement Chase would be the most senior US defence official known to have visited the island since 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic widely impacted US government travel. China, which regards Taiwan as a wayward province that must be reunited with the mainland, has repeatedly demanded that foreign officials not…
Distrust deepens over US-China balloon row
“It certainly indicates the People’s Liberation Army feels they can justify absolutely any technology and any mission, that they can do anything to increase China’s ability to project power, conduct surveillance, and hold the US at risk,” said Mr Drew Thompson, a former US Department of Defense official and a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore. BBC
Western Leaders Pledge Support for Ukraine at Munich Security Conference
MUNICH — Nearly one year into the brutal and costly war in Ukraine, Western leaders pledged to remain steadfast in their support for Kyiv amid worries about whether their unity can survive what France’s president called “a prolonged conflict.” As dozens of leaders convened in Germany, Ukraine’s president opened the annual Munich Security Conference with a warning against “fatigue” and emphasizing that speed is of the essence if his country is to hold off a renewed Russian onslaught. “We need to hurry up,” Mr. Zelensky implored the attendees. He compared…
Seoul’s defense ministry denies Korean troops massacred civilians during Vietnam War
South Korea’s defense ministry Friday denied that the country’s troops massacred civilians in the Vietnam War, and said that the government would appeal a recent court ruling that awarded damages to a survivor. Last week, the Seoul Central District Court ordered the government to pay US$24,000 in compensation to Vietnamese national Nguyen Thi Thanh, 63, who was shot as South Korean soldiers tore through her village in central Quang Nam province in 1968. While she survived, 74 were killed in the raid, including several of her relatives. South Korea sent…
Voice of Democracy seeks way to restore broadcast license
The management at the recently shuttered Voice of Democracy are looking for ways to negotiate with the government to reinstate its license, but Prime Minister Hun Sen insisted Friday that one of Cambodia’s last independent media outlets will not be allowed to reopen. Instead, he urged them to apply for jobs in the government, saying they could do so without taking the required examination. VOD was shut down Monday by Hun Sen after the outlet reported on Feb. 9 that the prime minister’s son, Hun Manet, had approved a government…
‘Mysterious’ Uyghur artist re-establishes himself in exile in Norway
Celebrated Uyghur artist Ekrem Imin has rebuilt his life – and his career – in exile in the Norwegian city of Sandvika. Back home, Ekrem’s artwork was displayed in major restaurants and hotels, and TV crews regularly interviewed him. In Norway, he’s made his mark by leaving his artwork, anonymously, along the banks of a stream running through the city near Oslo. “He is the mysterious artist,” read a headline published in Norway’s Budstikka newspaper in October 2020. The article, which named Ekrem as the painter of stones along the…
Neither China Nor Iran Will Get What They Want From Their Relationship
Advertisement Behind the smiles from Iranian and Chinese leaders in Beijing this week, there may well be frustration. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited the Chinese capital with the hope of shoring up his country’s international support and extracting economic advantages from his country’s relationship with China. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping wanted to use the visit to push for a resolution to the ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Unfortunately for both, neither are unlikely to get what they want. For Raisi, it was important to show that Iran is not the…
Why Chatbots like ChatGPT Weren’t Invented in China
Along the way, Beijing tamed the industry’s ambition and blunted its innovative edge. But tech companies and investors also have themselves to blame for falling behind their Silicon Valley counterparts. Even before the government started to impose a stronger hand on them, Chinese tech leaders were laser-focused on making money and reluctant to spend on research projects that weren’t likely to yield revenue in the short term. After the government’s onslaught in the past few years, executives are even less inclined to invest in long-term ventures. In 2021, the United…
US Concludes Chinese Balloon Recovery Efforts off South Carolina
Washington — The United States successfully concluded recovery efforts off South Carolina on Thursday for debris from the suspected Chinese balloon shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on February 4, the U.S. military said in a statement Friday. “Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered,” the U.S. military’s Northern Command said in a statement. “U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels have departed the area. Air…