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…
Tag: China
Chinese e-commerce exports plummet in face of tariffs, despite rise in sales to EU
Exports to the US from Chinese online shops such as Temu and Shein have plunged in the face of Donald Trump’s trade war, as shipping from China to the EU has increased. Official Chinese data showed its total e-commerce shipping dropped 65% by volume in the first three months of the year, but rose 28% in Europe. The sharp fall comes amid reports that the fast-fashion discount platform Shein is considering a restructuring in the US to circumnavigate tariffs. According to the Financial Times, one workaround would be for Shein…
China manufacturing activity plummets amid Trump tariff war
China’s factory activity slowed in April, with Beijing blaming “sharp changes” in the global economy as it fights a mounting trade war with the United States. Punishing US tariffs that reached 145% on many Chinese products came into force in April, and Beijing responded with 125% duties on imports from the US. Chinese exports soared more than 12% last month as businesses rushed to get ahead of the punishing tariffs. The impact of the measures began to show in official data on Wednesday, with the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) –…
Protests by unpaid Chinese workers spread amid factory closures
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…
Hedging our bets: the existential questions facing Australia’s next government in unpredictable times
The world is a more dangerous place. Global conflicts have doubled over the past five years, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled). In 2024 alone, one person in eight across the world was exposed to conflict: political violence increased by a quarter, by factors worse in countries that held elections. Australian political leaders of all stripes couch it in shared aphorism: the most “challenging strategic circumstances since WWII”. Violence, of course, never went away. It ebbed in some periods, but the myth of the triumph of liberal…
Investigation exposes China’s global campaign of transnational repression
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…
Why Chinese Australian voters could be key in a close race between teals and Liberals
Bradfield in Sydney’s affluent north shore is shaping up as the scene of one of the federal election’s most fiercely fought teal v Liberal battles. Nicolette Boele, a community independent, is taking on the star Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian. It’s Boele’s second shot at winning the seat, having run against the Liberal MP, Paul Fletcher – who is now retiring – and reducing his margin to just 4.2%. In a contest this tight every vote matters. That’s why the decision by another independent, Andy Yin, a former Liberal party insider,…
The ‘rat person’ trend is here – and I thoroughly approve | Arwa Mahdawi
Somewhere in Zhejiang province, China, a woman is living my dream. She gets up in the morning and then, almost immediately, goes back to bed. She lies prostrate all day long, scrolling, eating some food, opening some packages, showering at 2am, then snoozing again. As a longtime sleep enthusiast – and the mother of a child who thinks that 5am is a good time to start the day, all systems go – I think this sounds like bliss. The woman in Zhejiang is known as @jiawensishi – and also “rat…
China tight-lipped on North Korea’s Russia troop deployment confirmation
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…
Hong Kong frees 4 ex-lawmakers jailed for subversion
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…