Chinese workers across industries are facing salary cuts and layoffs as mounting economic woes engulf China’s public and private sectors, sources tell Radio Free Asia. That’s forcing families to slash spending. It is also triggering deflationary concerns as businesses enter into desperate price wars. From Beijing’s central government offices to provincial agencies across China, as well as major state-owned enterprises like investment bank China International Capital Corp (CICC), employees have faced substantial pay reductions that have reduced household budgets and fundamentally altered consumer spending patterns. “I used to earn 6,000…
Category: RFA
Cambodia, Thailand wage tit-for-tat as border rift widens
Updated June 17, 2025, 5:25 p.m. ET Cambodia on Tuesday blocked imports of Thai vegetables and fruit, and Thailand banned its nationals from working at some casinos inside Cambodia in fresh fallout from a border dispute sparked by a 10-minute firefight last month. Cambodia’s Ministry of Information said that starting at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, authorities along the border with Thailand closed gates to block the import of Thai agricultural products. Prime Minister Hun Manet declared Tuesday that Cambodia will only allow the Thai imports if the Thai military reopens…
China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other country’s: report
China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other country’s, by about 100 new warheads a year, a research group says. China could also potentially have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as either Russia or the United States by the turn of the decade. Those findings are in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) annual assessment of armaments, disarmament and international security, released Monday. SIPRI concludes that nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states – the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – continued…
Party chief To Lam’s son promoted to top ranks within Vietnam’s police force
To Long, believed to be the only son of Vietnam’s top leader To Lam, has been promoted to a senior position at the Ministry of Public Security, online posts showed, in a move that may be intended to cement support for Lam from police. Information and images circulated on social media platform TikTok showed Col. To Long had been appointed as director of the ministry’s Department of External Security at a June 4 ceremony. Experts said Long’s promotion is the latest in a series of appointments by Lam to consolidate…
Two Tibetan Buddhist monastery leaders sentenced for Dege dam protests
Authorities have sentenced two senior Tibetan monastic leaders to three- and four-year prison terms for their roles in rare 2024 public protests against a planned Chinese hydropower dam project, two sources in the region told Radio Free Asia. Sherab, the abbot of Yena Monastery in Dege county’s Wangbuding township in Kardze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, was sentenced to four years in prison and Gonpo, the chief administrator, sentenced to three years, said the sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. It wasn’t immediately clear when the sentences were…
Cambodia petitions world court, threatens to block imports of Thai produce
Read about this topic in Khmer. Cambodia threatened Monday to ban imports of Thai fruit and vegetables within 24 hours as a border dispute deepened after bilateral talks at the weekend failed to breach the impasse between the Southeast Asian neighbors. On Sunday, Cambodia formally requested the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, resolve claims over four areas of the disputed 800-kilometer (500-mile) Thai-Cambodia border. Thailand reiterated Monday that it rejects the compulsory jurisdiction of the court. The developments pointed to prolonged tensions over a territorial spat that stirs nationalist…
Lao democracy activist seriously wounded in knife attack in France
Exiled Lao democracy activist Joseph Akaravong is recovering in hospital after emergency surgery following a knife attack in southwestern France by an unidentified assailant, the activist and a human rights group said Monday. French news portal Sud Ouest reported that a man in his 30s was stabbed three times in the throat and torso around noon on Saturday in the center of the city of Pau then rushed to hospital there. It said the attacker was still at large. On Monday, Akaravong posted on Facebook a photo from his hospital…
China labor rights group shuts down in latest setback for civil society in Hong Kong
A Hong Kong-based labor rights group founded by prominent Chinese labor activist Han Dongfang has announced it is shutting down after three decades of tracking workers’ protests in China, citing financial difficulties and debt woes. The closure of China Labor Bulletin, announced Thursday, came as authorities launched a new national security investigation into six unnamed people and one organization suspected of “colluding with a foreign country.” Shortly after officials launched the probe, China Labor Bulletin – which receives funding from various foundations based outside China – announced its closure, saying:…
Hong Kong bans gaming app that police say incites ‘armed revolution’ against China
The app makers call it a “war saga” where gamers can choose a rebel faction from Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Tibet and then play at fighting Chinese communist forces – or if they choose, fight for the communist side instead. But it seems like whichever side you choose, it could get you into trouble in Hong Kong. This week, the city’s police issued a stark warning against downloading the mobile app “Reversed Front: Bonfire” on the grounds that the game is “advocating armed revolution and the overthrow of the…
Hong Kong exiles seek to preserve democracy’s memory through Lennon Walls in Taiwan
Exiled Hong Kongers are looking to revive the city’s famed Lennon Walls in Taiwan to serve as powerful reminders of a democracy movement that Beijing has sought to erase, even as no commemorative events were allowed in their home soil to mark the sixth anniversary of Hong Kong’s massive anti-extradition protests. “The Lennon Wall is an important collective memory for us (Hong Kongers),” said Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, who moved to Taiwan’s Taichung city in 2021. “From 2014 to 2019, it was the place where we spread our democratic…