Category: RFA

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Philippines has arrested a Chinese man for operating a surveillance device near the offices of its election commission, less than two weeks before the country’s midterm polls, adding further strain to relations between the two countries. Tensions have been rising between Manila and Beijing, fueled by rival flag-raising displays on the disputed Sandy Cay in South China Sea. “When we made the arrest, that was the third time he had come to Comelec,” said Philippine National Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ferdinand Lavin on Wednesday, referring to…

Dozens of ordinary Chinese investors who lost their money after the collapse of a state-backed financial services group in eastern China’s Shandong province have been detained by authorities for drawing attention to the issue through foreign media and for “being used by overseas anti-China forces,” two sources told Radio Free Asia. Last month, several investors among the nearly 100,000 impacted by a purported 20 billion yuan (or US$2.74 billion) financial scam linked to Shandong province-based Jianghaihui Group spoke with international media outlets, including RFA, hoping to create global awareness about…

Protests by workers demanding back wages are spreading across China in a sign of growing discontent among millions suffering the brunt of factory closures, triggered by steep U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports amid an economic downturn. Across the country – from Hunan province’s Dao county in central China to Sichuan’s Suining city in the southwest and Inner Mongolia’s Tongliao city to the northeast – hundreds of disgruntled workers have taken to the streets to protest about unpaid wages and to challenge unfair dismissals by factories that were forced to shut…

An international investigation involving dozens of news organizations has revealed how Beijing is exploiting global institutions – from Interpol to the United Nations – to silence critics and expand its authoritarian reach worldwide. Led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the project, China Targets, brought together more than 100 journalists from 42 media organizations, including Radio Free Asia. Over a 10-month period, reporters interviewed 105 individuals across 23 countries who had been pursued, harassed, or threatened by Chinese authorities – often for merely expressing dissent online or engaging…

TAIPEI, Taiwan – China avoided directly commenting on North Korea’s confirmation of its troop deployment to Russia and reiterated support for a “multilateral solution” to the conflict. North Korea on Monday acknowledged for the first time that it sent troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine, six months after reports of their presence first emerged. China, one of North Korea’s few allies, has been under pressure to serve as a restraining influence on Pyongyang as the U.S. and its allies worry that the deployment of North Korean troops…

BANGKOK – Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday freed four former lawmakers who each spent more than four years in prison for their part in staging an unofficial primary election in 2020, local media reported. Claudia Mo, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were among 47 activists arrested for the election activities. Only two of the 47 were acquitted after a grueling 118-day trial that ended in November 2024 with prison sentences of four to 10 years. Vehicles carrying the freed activists left three prisons early on Tuesday amid tight…

Chinese authorities have detained a young man for unfurling pro-democracy banners this month at an overpass in Chengdu in southwest China – a rare form of public protest that is punishable as a criminal offence, two sources told Radio Free Asia Authorities are investigating whether Mei Shilin, 27, had any overseas connections and have taken criminal detention measures against him, said the two sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity fearing reprisals. The exact date of his detention was not immediately clear, sources said. In China, criminal detention measures…