The CHN/ China thread

[Jimbuna]

China has been ranked as the worst country in the world for safety from the state and the right to assembly, in a human rights report that tracks social, economic and political freedoms.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), a New Zealand-based project, has been monitoring various countries’ human rights performance since 2017.

In 2022, HRMI started tracking freedom of religion and belief for the first time. China also scored worst on this indicator, although the pilot study only covered nine countries.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...s-report-finds

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

China's military has been flexing its muscles this week around Taiwan practicing joint force operations far out at sea, ahead of Taipei holding its annual war games at the end of the month when Taiwan will simulate breaking a Chinese blockade.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

The Chinese are at it yet again.

China is preparing to join Russia in joint naval drills, showing continued support for Moscow amid its invasion of Ukraine.

Today, Beijing announced it dispatched navy ships in preparation for joint exercises, which involves more than 10 ships and 30-plus aircraft.

China has insisted it is neutral on the Ukraine war, but has accused the US and its Western allies of provoking Russia.

Meanwhile, the head of MI6 has said Beijing is "complicit" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in a damning indictment from the UK.

In a press release, China's Defense Ministry said that its ships had linked up with their Russian counterparts at noon.

Warships sent include the guided missile destroyers Qiqihar and Guiyang, the guided missile frigates Zaozhuang and Rizhao and the supply ship Taihu.

Russian participants included the frigates Gromkiy and Otlichnyy, which have been hosting visitors for a week in the financial hub of Shanghai, China's largest city and biggest port.

The joint drills focus on ship-to-ship communications, maneuvering in formation and maritime search and rescue, according to Chinese reports.

Meanwhile, Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, said Beijing and Xi Jinping are "absolutely complicit" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He told Politico: "When Putin invaded Ukraine, the Chinese very clearly supported the Russians.

"They have completely supported the Russians diplomatically, they've abstained in key votes at the United Nations, they've absolutely cynically repeated all the Russian tropes, particularly in places like Africa and Latin America - blaming NATO and all of this stuff."

Moore also claimed that MI6 now devotes more resources to tackling China than any other country.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...61769041&ei=18

[Jimbuna]

Next on Big Brothers agenda.

BEIJING (Reuters) -It is China's "priority" to stop Taiwan's vice president and presidential frontrunner William Lai from visiting the United States next month, the country's ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday, as Beijing steps up its warnings against the trip.

China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up military and political pressure over the past three years to try and force the island to accept Beijing's sovereignty claims, which the government in Taipei strongly rejects.

Taiwan will hold presidential and parliamentary elections in January, with Lai, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential candidate, the frontrunner in most opinion polls.

Lai is making what are officially stop overs in the United States on his way to and from Paraguay for the Aug. 15 inauguration of its new president, drawing anger from Beijing which slammed Lai as a separatist.

Chinese ambassador Xie Feng told the Aspen Security Forum that "Taiwan is China's Taiwan" and that the country wanted a peaceful "reunification", but Taiwanese "separatists" were advancing their agenda, seeking U.S. support.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...f40f780c&ei=17

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

Interesting.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Is Qin Gang’s a victim of the Putin syndrome or is he simply guilty of having an affair?

China’s foreign minister has not been seen in nearly a month, leading to speculation over his whereabouts in a country where the private lives of senior officials are shrouded in secrecy.

Qin Gang’s last public appearance was a meeting with visiting Russian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese officials on June 25.

Since then, he has missed a series of high-profile diplomatic meetings at home and abroad, including a gathering of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers in Jakarta earlier this month. He will likely miss a Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit in Johannesburg next week.

He was conspicuously absent from a meeting of high-level foreign delegates in Beijing this week, including Henry Kissinger, and a rare visit by Ukraine’s deputy economy minister.

Other engagements also appear to have stalled. A trip to China by James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, originally slated for early this month has yet to be confirmed. Another by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, was cancelled by Beijing.

Officially, the Chinese government has said Mr Qin is away for unspecified “health reasons”, and that Wang Yi, the country’s top diplomat, would fill in at the Asean meeting.

One rumour going around is that he had an affair with Fu Xiaotian, a Chinese television presenter.

The presenter, who has also disappeared from public view recently, was accused of flirting with Mr Qin in an interview in March last year, potentially violating the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s regulations.

A protege of leader Xi Jinping and regarded as a loyalist, Mr Qin was seen as a rising star.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...8ffed54d1&ei=8

[Jimbuna]

China sent dozens of warplanes, including fighter jets and bombers, toward Taiwan marking a forceful display days before the democracy plans to hold military exercises aimed at defending itself against a possible invasion.

Taiwan is due to hold its annual Han Kuang exercise next week, during which its military will hold combat readiness drills for preventing an invasion.

It will also conduct the annual Wan'an exercises aimed at preparing civilians for natural disasters and practising evacuations in case of an air raid.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army sent 37 aircraft and seven navy vessels around Taiwan between 6 am Friday and 6 am Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.

[Jimbuna]

The US on Friday unveiled a Taiwan weapons aid package worth up to $345 million (roughly €310 million), in a move likely to anger China.

The Biden administration did not detail what equipment would be included.

A statement from the White House spoke of a package of "defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan."

US officials speaking on condition of anonymity when the deal was being prepared had said that Taiwan was keen to acquire US espionage drones among the new equipment, but said that questions about whether they could be adapted appropriately for export in time meant it wasn't clear if they would be included.

The announcement came on the same week as a major annual military exercise in Taiwan, simulating the defence in case of a Chinese invasion.

[Skybird]

Looks suspicously like a Chinese military/secret service operation to me, to be made use of in case of war with the US. Soft intrusion, like with those ballons. Just that a pandemic does not collect data, but causes chaos and kills. Right what in case of war is wanted.

https://nypost.com/2023/08/01/illega...nia-warehouse/

[Jimbuna]

The United States on Wednesday raised concerns over a Chinese call to encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work and said it has been closely monitoring the implementation of Beijing's expanded anti-spying law.

China's Ministry of State Security on Tuesday said China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity and rewarding them for doing do.

China's declaration that it is under threat from spies comes as Western nations, most prominently the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks,
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-say...es-2023-08-02/