Tag: Human Rights and Human Rights Violations

Solar Supply Chain Grows More Opaque Amid Human Rights Concerns

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Global supply chains for solar panels have begun shifting away from a heavy reliance on China, in part because of a recent ban on products from Xinjiang, a region where the U.S. government and United Nations accuse the Chinese government of committing human rights violations. But a new report by experts in human rights and the solar industry found that the vast majority of solar panels made globally continue to have significant exposure to China and Xinjiang. The report, released Tuesday, also faulted the solar industry for becoming less transparent…

After China Arrested Her Husband, A Wife Discovered His Secret Dissident Blog

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It wasn’t as if Bei Zhenying didn’t know that her husband was unusual, or even that he had some secrets. He was a talented computer programmer, and she fell for his inquisitive intelligence and playfulness when they met at university in Shanghai. But he was also proudly nonconformist — refusing to use social media or buy new clothes — and intensely private, disappearing into his study to do work he wouldn’t discuss. Ms. Bei, 45, accepted those quirks as the habits of a professional geek, someone engrossed in a world…

Yellen’s China Visit Aims to Ease Tensions Amid Deep Divisions

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The last time a U.S. Treasury secretary visited China, Washington and Beijing were locked in a trade war, the Trump administration was preparing to label China a currency manipulator, and fraying relations between the two countries were roiling global markets. Four years later, as Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen prepares to arrive in Beijing, many of the economic policy concerns that have been festering between the United States and China remain — or have even intensified — despite the Biden administration’s less antagonistic tone. The tariffs that President Donald J.…

Blinken’s Visit to Saudi Arabia Caps Biden Effort to Rebuild Ties

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By the time Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken wrapped up a visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, he and Saudi officials had discussed cooperation on a smorgasbord of issues: Iran, Sudan, the Islamic State, regional infrastructure, clean energy and the potential normalization of Saudi-Israel relations. Mr. Blinken gave effusive remarks on the work being done at a news conference in Riyadh: “It is critical for expanding opportunity and driving progress for our people and for people around the world.” It was the type of bonhomie that American officials usually…

Chinese Dissident Sentenced to 8 Years After He Tried to Fly to His Dying Wife

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A court in southern China has sentenced one of the country’s most unyielding human rights activists to eight years in prison for essays he wrote and a website he created, in the ruling Communist Party’s latest warning blow against political dissent. The activist, Yang Maodong, was detained in 2021 when he tried to catch a flight to the United States to be with his wife, who was gravely ill. Mr. Yang — who is better known by his pen name, Guo Feixiong — was sentenced at the end of a…

WTA Lifts Suspension on Tournaments in China

Chin@Strategy

The WTA will resume operating tournaments in China later this year after having suspended events there in late 2021 because of concerns about the Chinese player Peng Shuai. The return, announced Thursday, is also a retreat. When Peng, one of China’s biggest tennis stars, accused a former top Chinese government official of sexual assault in a social media post in November 2021, the WTA and Steve Simon, its chairman and chief executive, took a strong stance. The WTA called for a “full and transparent” inquiry into Peng’s allegations, which were…

The Toll That Twitter’s Glitches Is Taking on Chinese Activists

Chin@Strategy

In November, Bao Pu, a veteran human rights activist who was visiting Beijing, posted videos on Twitter of university protests against China’s tough coronavirus lockdown orders. He gained over 10,000 followers in subsequent weeks. But friends and fellow activists soon told him they were having a hard time finding his posts — and even his account — on Twitter. “I was shocked,” said Mr. Bao, who is based in Hong Kong. He said he feared that Twitter was “putting a limit on the influence” that he could have. More than…

There’s Been a Revolution in How China Is Governed

Chin@Strategy

Produced by ‘The Ezra Klein Show’ There are few stories that are more crucial to the world’s future than what’s happening in China. Take any of the most important issues of our time — climate change, geopolitics, the global economy, advanced technologies — and China is at the center of them. American politics itself has increasingly come to revolve around competition with China. In other words, what happens in China doesn’t stay in China — it reverberates through the global economy, the American political system and the international order. And…

‘I Will Keep Fighting’: China’s Protesters Say It’s Bigger Than Covid

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After the Chinese government announced this week that it would retreat from its harsh Covid policies, many Chinese expressed their gratitude to the protesters who had boldly spoken out against the punishing restrictions. After three long years, people throughout China could try to get back to normal life. “Thank you, brave young people” was a widely shared comment on Chinese social media platforms. Some people posted Time magazine’s new “Heroes of the Year” cover, honoring Iranian women, and compared China’s protesters to them: “Salute the brave women of Iran. Salute…

Global Car Supply Chains Entangled With Abuses in Xinjiang, Report Says

Chin@Strategy

Many of those suppliers run through China, which has become increasingly vital to the global auto industry and the United States, the destination for about a quarter of the auto parts that China exports annually. Xinjiang is home to a variety of industries, but its ample coal reserves and lax environmental regulations have made it a prominent location for energy-intensive materials processing, like smelting metal, the report says. Chinese supply chains are complicated and opaque, which can make it difficult to trace certain individual products from Xinjiang to the United…