[This is an opinion piece by Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer of Uyghur descent, an international law scholar at Harvard Law School and a senior legal and policy advisor at the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project.]

Web archive link

At Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney drew applause for his plea to middle powers to “build a new order that encompasses values.” ... It was also deeply painful to see Carney feted for his “principled pragmatism” only days after he visited China to forge a new strategic partnership, devoid of any mention of human rights concerns.

...

Carney’s embrace at Davos and his appeal to deal with the “world as it is, not as we wish it to be” left me with the question: Will the “new” world order he’s advertising protect everyone, or only those whose suffering is not inconvenient? The old order certainly didn’t. Treating human rights as separate from trade, as if mass atrocity can be compartmentalized to appease China, may have safeguarded commercial interests and avoided friction in the short-term—but it also helped normalize the intolerable.

It’s been 10 years since China began building a sprawling system of concentration camps—designed to bury atrocities behind bureaucracy and beyond tourists’ gaze.

...

It’s been three years since the U.N.’s foremost human rights body determined China is committing crimes against humanity. Carney and his “middle power” peers can hardly claim that they didn’t know.

But what happens when China’s façade becomes useful? Even for leaders of the democratic world, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently visited China, it allows suffering to be acknowledged just enough to be set aside, framed as a difference in systems rather than a violation that demands consequence. Public pressure is muted, accountability deferred and appeals for justice quietly absorbed into diplomatic language.

...

It's not just Uyghurs; there are Tibetans, Hong Kongers. International law has never protected Taiwan. Its security rests not on legal norms, but on strategic necessity—especially its dominance in advanced semiconductor chips.

Carney argued that middle powers need to unite to hedge against stronger countries, because what we’re living through is not a transition but a rupture in the rules-based order ... The deeper irony is that leaders of the Global South, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s advisor, argued that Brazil would continue working with Europe, China and others who champion multilateralism and international law. It’s unfathomable to square China's status as a champion with its promotion of what Professor Tom Ginsburg described as authoritarian international law.

...

An international legal order worth its name is more than just policing borders and battlefields. It must serve as a shield for those hidden from sight, protecting them from the machinery of disappearance, torture, cultural erasure and similar threats.

...

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) torturers systematically use sexual violence and rape against Palestinians held hostage in Israeli torture chambers and during their attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank

Israeli torturers have photographed Palestinian women, including pregnant women, in degrading positions, including in their underwear in front of male soldiers, subjected them to repeated and invasive strip searches, and threatened to rape or actually raped them.

Israelis have systematically raped and sexually assaulted Palestinian men held hostage in Israeli torture chambers, including through the use of electrical probes to cause burns to the anus, as well as the insertion of objects, such as fingers, sticks, broomsticks and vegetables, into hostages' genitalia.

Israeli torturers and settlers also sexually abuse Palestinian children as young as 14.

In 2021, when the NGO Defense for Children - Palestine (DCI-P) exposed that an IOF torturer had physically and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Israeli custody, DCI-P's office was raided by Israeli authorities. The NGO was stripped of its equipment and labelled a "terrorist organisation".

The violence of IOF soldiers increasingly also includes sexual acts intended to feminise or shame not only the victim but the Palestinian community as a whole, in an increasing trend to photograph or film these acts. For example, IOF soldiers committing genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip repeatedly filmed themselves going through Palestinian women's underwear and making sexual comments about the undergarments.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51447521

** “If I call my family, there will be problems.” **

Archived

[...]

Beginning in 2016-17, as the Chinese state expanded surveillance and mass internment in the Uyghur Region – as purported counter-terror measures – contact between Uyghurs abroad and their families inside China collapsed. In 2020, a leaked Chinese government database cited Uyghurs’ “overseas communications” with relatives as a cause for internment. In a connected world, where long-distance communication is cheap and instantaneous, making a phone call has far-reaching consequences.

[...]

Uyghurs abroad have been cut off from parents, siblings, and extended family members for as long as a decade. The result has been unresolved grief for deaths in the family learned years after the fact, intergenerational trauma as children grow up without knowing grandparents, deteriorating mental health, and isolation from cultural expression rooted in family life. These harms unfold in a global context of increasing Islamophobia, in which Muslim communities are increasingly securitised, surveilled, and treated as collective threats: all conditions that normalise extraordinary state control over ordinary family life.

[...]

Indirect contact with relatives, such as through mutual acquaintances, provoked retaliation by authorities. One Uyghur [said] that following an innocuous and mediated exchange last year, security agents questioned his father-in-law. When contact was possible, some families experienced monitored or scripted phone calls that simulated “normality” while functioning as intimidation. Others were offered the possibility of a family reunion but only under strict conditions, such as agreeing to monitor Uyghur diaspora members or to disengage from advocacy. News, if it arrived at all, was often incomplete or years after the fact, and the ambiguity of not knowing has become a permanent condition. These are not dramatic, headline-grabbing abuses, but everyday systems of harm.

[...]

For many Uyghurs, family is a means through which the state reaches and attempts to control them, even across borders. Family members inside China are punished for the actions, speech, or presence of relatives abroad. This threat disciplines critical speech overseas, compelling silence not because Uyghurs lack grievances, but because having family in the Uyghur Region is a form of leverage. Yusup, originally from Kashgar and now living in Turkey, last spoke with his mother in 2018. Although Yusup isn’t sure if it was because of their conversation, she was detained the same year and spent six years in prison.

[...]

Why, then, does this intimidation and coercion continue with little intervention, especially since China’s transnational repression infringes on the sovereignty of other states? In part, it is because the world has moved on to other emergencies, leaving Uyghur families to manage what functions as a subtle tool of authoritarian control. However, the broader issue of transnational repression is acknowledged as a growing challenge for democratic societies. A January 2026 analysis by the European Parliament documents how states increasingly deploy surveillance, intimidation, and family-based coercion to control diasporas abroad.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/51513798

[Opinion piece by Sebastien Lai. He is the son of Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai.]

Archived

China says it stands for stability and the international rule of law. Yet it has sentenced my 78-year-old father, British citizen and newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai, to twenty years in prison for peaceful journalism. That contradiction should define every European leader’s visit to Beijing.

To mark the occasion of German Chancellor Merz’s official visit to Beijing, the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China on Wednesday issued a press release invoking friendship between the two states and urging trust in an era of instability. In a nod to Trump’s Board of Peace, it also notes that China and Germany stand by the central role of the United Nations and the importance of the international rule of law.

These are fine words. But they are also empty. For as long as my father, the journalist, prisoner of conscience and British citizen Jimmy Lai, remains behind bars, Hong Kong is proof that China’s claim to respect international law is a plain falsehood.

[...]

In the same year that my father has been convicted and sentenced for exercising his right to free speech in Hong Kong, the UK Prime Minister and the German Chancellor have made official visits to China. While I understand the importance of advancing trading interests, I urge leaders everywhere to beware an economic partner who is willing to flout international law, ignore the UN, disregard human rights and put a frail, British prisoner of conscience through an unspeakable ordeal simply because he dared to speak truth to power.

This is not just a moral case. Hong Kong’s descent from the rule of law into tyranny is bad for business. It puts contracts at risk of being unenforceable, makes employers and employees vulnerable to political pressure and taints the potential of the free market with totalitarian control. If Beijing is willing to ignore international law, how can it be trusted to abide by the terms of a trade deal?

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50976930

Jimmy Lai and countless others in China are paying the price for a West too eager to compromise principles for profit.

Archived

Just about two weeks before Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was handed a 20-year prison sentence, the harshest under the city’s National Security Law, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Beijing. He walked the red carpet at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, met President Xi Jinping, and attended a lavish welcome ceremony. It was widely hailed as a “break-the-ice” visit, the first by a British prime minister in six years, aimed at normalizing relations with China.

The timing, however, spoke volumes. On the eve of Lai’s sentencing, Starmer signaled that British diplomacy was prioritizing friendship with Beijing over the fate of a British citizen, Jimmy Lai. The message was unmistakable: no matter how China treats Jimmy Lai, the normalization of China-U.K. relations will carry on.

[...]

Starmer later told reporters he had raised Lai’s case with Xi, but offered no details, leaving the public to wonder if Beijing even blinked. The answer came swiftly: Lai, 78, was sentenced to what is effectively a life term. To put it bluntly, this is almost a death sentence. Lai now faces a fate akin to Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who perished in detention.

The severity of the sentence shocked observers. Compared with the 2024 trial of 47 pro-democracy activists, Lai’s 20-year term is twice as long as that handed to Benny Tai, who was accused of masterminding the 2020 primary legislative election. Editors, publishers, and editorial writers involved in Lai’s publications were regarded by the court as masterminds and handed sentences of up to 10 years, punished for simply doing their jobs as journalists.

[...]

Ironically, the imposition of such harsh sentences has unfolded against a backdrop of Western governments seeking to normalize relations with China. The reshaping of global politics under U.S. President Donald Trump has nudged allies to engage China. Over the past year, Western leaders who once condemned Beijing for human rights abuses – from France to Germany, Canada to the U.K. – have queued to shake Xi’s hand, sign trade deals, and signal goodwill.

As international pressure eases, the Chinese Communist Party has intensified its crackdown on dissent, acting with a level of impunity not seen in previous years. Beijing’s calculation is clear: if Western powers are eager to deepen economic ties, the diplomatic price of jailing dissidents has all but disappeared.

[...]

Now Jimmy Lai and countless others in China are paying the price for a West too eager to compromise principles for profit. Their suffering is a mirror reflecting the cost of a diplomacy that prioritizes access to China’s market and money over freedom, human rights, and justice.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50731537

Archived

Ever since Frank Dikötter’s first book, The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992), this prolific star of China studies has challenged conventional truths and broached taboo subjects.

[...]

Yet read as a whole, Dikötter’s body of work does read like a grave indictment of the Communist regime, which is one reason why he is not well-liked by the Chinese authorities.

[...]

If Dikötter has long held a leading position on the Chinese Communist Party’s blacklist, his most recent book will give the authorities no ground to demote him. Red Dawn Over China is a history of the CCP’s rise to power over decades from its obscure origins in the early 1920s to the triumphant end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. To say the least, it was a very bloody affair.

[...]

Those who have read Dikötter will immediately recognise his no-nonsense style, which intersperses dry numbers (thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of deaths) and occasional stories that shed light on how some of these people died. In this book he recounts the story of the CCP’s rise as a non-ending series of crimes, some very meticulously described. Numbers . . . numbers . . . someone gets shot. Numbers . . . numbers . . . someone gets buried alive. Numbers . . . numbers . . . someone gets their head smashed by a rock. Numbers . . . numbers . . . someone gets eaten. Voilà, behold the dawn of Communism.

Dikötter’s general argument is, as he puts it, that “Communism was never popular in China.” It was imposed on the Chinese through systemic, unrelenting violence.

[...]

There was no heroism, no glory, no grassroots enthusiasm for the Communist cause. Just endless brutality perpetrated by a deeply illegitimate movement that never had much of a purchase among the general populace.

[...]

The [new] book is also a valuable reminder that today’s China — the prosperous, technologically advanced superpower — is a country built on a foundation of violence. “Political power,” Mao Zedong argued, “comes out of the barrel of a gun.” A tireless chronicler of the numerous crimes and follies of Chinese Communism, Dikötter once again shows his readers who was pulling the trigger of that gun, and at what cost to the long-suffering Chinese people.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50302535

Archived

A new United Nations report has issued one of the clearest warnings to date that Chinese state policies in Tibet are actively eroding the foundations of Tibetan civilisation, threatening the survival of Tibetans as a distinct people.

The findings appear in a report to the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Nicolas Levrat. While global in scope, the report explicitly identifies Tibet as a case where state-led policies are not merely discriminatory but constitute what the UN expert describes as “eradication in more subtle ways.”

...

At the centre of this warning is China’s vast boarding school system imposed on Tibetan children. The report states unequivocally that “the boarding school education system implemented by China in Tibet is aimed at erasing the Tibetan language and identity.” Tibetan children are separated from their families and communities and educated in environments where Mandarin Chinese, state ideology, and cultural assimilation dominate daily life. According to the report, this policy prevents “the intergenerational transmission of cultural, linguistic or religious elements of minorities’ identities,” a process that leads to “the extinction of the minority as a distinct group in the State population.”

...

The Special Rapporteur makes clear that eradication does not require mass killing to meet the threshold of grave human rights violations.

...

These policies are not isolated, but part of a broader political project. The report notes that China has “since 2012 undertaken a nation-building process” that has resulted in “the marginalisation of minority communities,” leading to “forms of severe discrimination against non-Han minorities, such as Tibetans.” Despite constitutional guarantees of regional autonomy, the report finds that in practice Tibetan identity is being subordinated to a single state-defined national identity.

...

Two Human Rights Watch (HRW) employees who make up the organization’s entire Israel and Palestine team are stepping down from their positions after leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a “crime against humanity”.

In separate resignation letters obtained by Jewish Currents and the Guardian, Omar Shakir, who has headed the team for nearly the last decade, and Milena Ansari, the team’s assistant researcher, said leadership’s decision to pull the report broke from HRW’s customary approval processes and was evidence that the organization was putting fear of political backlash over a commitment to international law.

Concerns about reputational damage were voiced by Tom Porteous, HRW’s acting program director at the time. He wrote Shakir that the report was well-argued, but “the question is how we are going to deploy this argument in our advocacy without this coming off as HRW rejecting the state of Israel and without it undermining our credibility as a neutral, impartial monitor of events.”

I am trying to survive in Gaza with my children under extremely harsh conditions. The cold is unbearable, and we are living in torn tents that offer no protection from wind or rain. For more than a month now, the donations we’ve received have been very limited and not enough to cover even our most basic daily needs. My children are suffering the most — from hunger, cold, and constant fear. The prices of food and basic necessities have become insanely high. Even bread and clean water are difficult to obtain. Any donation, no matter how small, can help me provide food, blankets, and essential supplies for my children. Please consider donating and sharing our story — your solidarity truly makes a difference. Donation link: https://gofund.me/8e758692

Exactly a year ago today, I was abducted from a Zurich street by plainclothes police, bundled into an unmarked car and taken to prison.

I was walking with one of my hosts toward a venue where I was scheduled to speak at an event organized by Swiss activists about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

During my detention, Swiss intelligence officers tried to question me without my lawyer present – an apparent attempt, I told Swiss academic Pascal Lottaz in a recent interview, to manufacture grounds for my arrest retroactively.

After three days in detention, I was handcuffed, caged in a police van, taken to the airport and expelled.

The operation achieved its purpose: preventing me from participating in public events about Israel’s crimes. But it failed to intimidate or silence me.

In December, Zurich’s Administrative Court ruled that my detention violated both the Swiss constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

I have filed additional cases, including a criminal complaint against Nicoletta della Valle, the Israel-linked police official later identified by a parliamentary investigation as having ordered the action against me.

As I told Lottaz, what happened to me is not exceptional. It is part of a widening campaign across the so-called West to silence journalists, students and activists who expose Israel’s crimes or advocate for Palestinian rights.

Among the most shocking cases is that of Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman and the last person still held in US federal detention in connection with protests at Columbia University.

On 13 March last year, Kordia attended what she believed was a routine, voluntary check-in at ICE headquarters in New Jersey.

Instead, she was transported to a detention facility in Texas, 1,500 miles away from her home, her mother and her brother with special needs who relied on her support.

🌙 In a place where safety is fragile, we take life one day at a time, trying to protect our children’s hope despite the hardship.

Any form of support, no matter how small, truly matters. Even sharing helps.

🔗 https://gofund.me/1d3ea05b6

Hello everyone,

We created and are developing an archive to document, archive, and expose the crimes of ICE.

It is on https://crimesofice.org/

TOR link: http://ice7fl7ycodmekhrch5wkclblrbbpjctvdniikzs5gfatnk6pgseilqd.onion/

Unfortunately, our abilities to find different videos and documents of ICE on the internet are still limited. We are a small team.

If you want join our team to help us find more material and show the crimes of ICE to the whole world, let us know :)

SimpleX Chat:

https://smp17.simplex.im/a#6B-MiQ-P7nUt5-xsf3iIfh6H-VS_LWBZoId9VqK4GMU

Matrix: @cardboardenjoyer:unredacted.org

Mail: basedbatman@airmail.cc

I am trying to survive in Gaza with my children under extremely harsh conditions. The cold is unbearable, and we are living in torn tents that offer no protection from wind or rain. For more than a month now, the donations we’ve received have been very limited and not enough to cover even our most basic daily needs. My children are suffering the most — from hunger, cold, and constant fear. The prices of food and basic necessities have become insanely high. Even bread and clean water are difficult to obtain. Any donation, no matter how small, can help me provide food, blankets, and essential supplies for my children. Please consider donating and sharing our story — your solidarity truly makes a difference. Donation link: https://gofund.me/8e758692

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49395941

Archived

Here is the full report: “Save Our Mother Tongue”: Online Repression and Erasure of Mongolian Culture in China

The Chinese government is waging a systematic campaign to erase Mongolian language, music, and culture online, using surveillance and intimidation of activists, platform shutdowns, and content removal to silence users and digital spaces where Mongolian identity once thrived, PEN America and the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center said in new report, released today.

“Save Our Mother Tongue”: Online Repression and Erasure of Mongolian Culture in China, documents how vibrant digital spaces that once enabled Mongolians to communicate in their own language, share their music and literature, and organize peaceful protests, have been dismantled. Based on 20 in-depth interviews, including with Mongolians in exile and some who recently left China, digital research, and public records, the report shows how the rapid growth of Mongolian-language internet use in the early 2000s triggered a wave of digital crackdowns. These crackdowns intensified after protests erupted in 2020 over a new policy imposing Mandarin Chinese as the language of instruction.

“This is not just about censorship – it is about erasing Mongolian culture and identity and leaving Mongolian people living in China isolated from their own identity,” said Erika Nguyen, senior manager at the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Center at PEN America and co-author of the report.

“The Chinese government has made basic acts many of us take for granted, like speaking your language, listening to your music and participating in digital community spaces, not only almost impossible but something that is actively dangerous. This is also a chilling glimpse at what will happen if tech companies continue to give governments unfettered control over what can and cannot be available online.”

A new policy in 2020 that replaced Mongolian with Mandarin Chinese across all subjects in schools sparked protests that swept the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This led to a swift and brutal suppression from the government during which 8,000 – 10,000 Mongolians were placed in police custody. This real-world repression was followed by an escalating crackdown on online posts protesting the policy. More than half of interviewees for this research, all of whom now live outside of the region, were banned from WeChat, a widely used mobile app in China, because they took part in the protests online and in real life.

A Mongolian who left the region after the protest explained, “I participated in the protests in Inner Mongolia in 2020, driven by my deep concern for the preservation of our language and culture. The atmosphere was charged with hope, but that quickly turned to fear as the government cracked down on dissent. …they implemented widespread censorship, shut down social media, and silenced anyone who dared to speak out.”

Following the protests, the Chinese government paid particular attention to suppressing the use of the Mongolian language: nearly 89% of the 169 cultural websites written in Mongolian – a vertical, left-to-right writing system unsupported by most digital platforms – reviewed by PEN America have been shut down, converted to Mandarin-only access or stripped of content related to Mongolian life and culture, including discussions of Chinggis Khan. Mongolian words, songs, and historical references are routinely censored or labeled “separatist.”

The report found that other ongoing attempts to eradicate the Mongolian language, expression, and community include: arresting and forcing “re-education” on Mongolian activists and educators who posted online; using digital platforms for forced “confessions” to publicly discipline and intimidate Mongolians; restricting language-specific messaging apps that were designed and coded to support Mongolian script; shutting down chat forums and online meeting spaces where people wrote in Mongolian and discuss Mongolian language and culture; and removing Mongolian music from music apps.

“To express ourselves online – that would mean telling our stories on our terms, in our own voice,” said one exiled Mongolian activist interviewed for the report. “It would mean Mongolian words, poems, and music thriving – not hidden in encrypted chats, not erased by algorithm or policy, not punishable. It would mean Mongolian children seeing their language in pixels as well as textbooks, feeling seen, alive, and proud.”

[...]

“Imagine waking up one day and not being allowed to communicate with your parents, grandparents, or siblings in a language they understand,” said Enghebatu Togochog, director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. “That is what has happened to Mongolian people living in China. Online cultural communities are not just nice to have but an essential part of allowing people to fully enjoy their cultural rights – that is what the Chinese government is taking away and what we must urgently fight to protect.”

These violations against Mongolian people are reflective of a wider crackdown by the Chinese government designed to stamp out any minority language and culture in the region, including Mongolian, Tibetan, and Uyghur.

[...]

The report concluded that governments, multilateral institutions, tech companies, cultural institutions, and donors must act collectively to hold the Chinese government accountable for violations of the cultural, linguistic, digital, and free expression rights of ethnic minorities. They must press for the release of detained Mongolians, the repeal of laws and practices that suppress minority identity and speech, support Mongolian cultural initiatives, and provide protection and support to Mongolians in exile at risk of transnational repression.

At the same time, the research found, China continues to publicly display a “sanitized” or touristic version of Mongolian culture through foreign influencers and international media in order to be able to claim to international audiences that it is supportive of Mongolians’ cultural rights.

“The Chinese government is willing to go to great lengths to tout the type of Mongolian culture it deems acceptable to an international audience while actively undermining Mongolians’ rights to determine and develop their own culture,” said Nguyen.

I am trying to survive in Gaza with my children under extremely harsh conditions. The cold is unbearable, and we are living in torn tents that offer no protection from wind or rain. For more than a month now, the donations we’ve received have been very limited and not enough to cover even our most basic daily needs. My children are suffering the most — from hunger, cold, and constant fear. The prices of food and basic necessities have become insanely high. Even bread and clean water are difficult to obtain. Any donation, no matter how small, can help me provide food, blankets, and essential supplies for my children. Please consider donating and sharing our story — your solidarity truly makes a difference. Donation link: https://gofund.me/8e758692

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49097095

Archived

Kevin Slaten, research lead for the China Dissent Monitor (CDM), explains how the CDM team uncovers dissent activity in China, what this information tells us about economic, social, and political trends there, and why understanding dissent and protest in China is important for people living outside.

[...]

Slaten: CDM is currently the only public database of protest events in China. We have collected and analyzed nearly 14,000 such events since June 2022.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has for many years systematically censored information about protests in China’s media and internet, and it has arrested citizens who attempted to centralize this information into a database [...] Understanding patterns related to the frequency, topics, and locations of dissent provides insight into how China’s economic slowdown affects ordinary people, the efficacy of government policies, and public dissatisfaction with the conduct of government and other officials—as well as systemic injustices and potentially even regime stability.

[...]

The CDM team races every day to document protest activity on China’s social media sites before it is deleted. Depending on the topic and size of the event—and whether it goes viral—some posts may disappear in minutes. Online censorship makes this sort of documentation difficult. Searches for dissent-related terms don’t turn up many results, and protest posts are often restricted, for example.

[...]

Additionally, dissent by some social groups, such as ethnic and religious minorities or activists, is not well represented on Chinese social media because these groups face especially stringent restrictions like closer surveillance by state security.

[...]

Chinese citizens often have some understanding that protests happen, having seen them in internet posts or heard anecdotes through their social networks. But, they may not know the real prevalence or distribution of protests, including in their own cities, much less other regions. This can contribute to the perception that protest is an abnormal or illegitimate way to seek justice, a narrative that the CCP promotes and benefits from.

[...]

More generally, protest events across China have been increasing in the last year, according to CDM’s database. This upward trend is primarily associated with economic grievances, particularly protests by workers, home buyers, and other consumers or investors.

[...]

A lot of the things that prompt dissent in China—from widespread labor rights violations to repression of ethnic minority groups—reflect consequences of the CCP systematically restricting rights like free expression and free association. We can already see the influence of this system expanding beyond China’s borders. For example, the CCP manipulates media in other countries and is the world’s worst perpetrator of transnational repression, when governments reach across borders to intimidate or attack exiles they perceive as a threat. Chinese companies import poor labor practices into the foreign countries where they work. This puts pressure on American companies to compete by lowering their labor standards. Thus CCP abuses can undermine people’s rights everywhere, including in the United States.

[...]

Accurate information about developments in China is increasingly difficult to find as the CCP has restricted access to economic and social data, in addition to suppressing public criticism through its sprawling censorship apparatus. CDM is an alternative source of information which, by documenting protest actions, sheds light on the state of China’s economic, social, and political developments at the grassroots level.

[...]

The CDM is now back online thanks to a tranche of short-term funding. However, without further support, policymakers, businesses, investors, researchers, and others could once again lose access to this uniquely valuable public resource that exposes the social and political developments the CCP tries to hide. To help CDM continue its groundbreaking research, please donate to Freedom House today.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/48759609

Tentative data for the year 2025 from the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) shows the mass exodus of asylum seekers from China continues unabated and is set to either rival last year’s record-breaking number or possibly exceed it. The tentative data, to be adjusted and finalized later in 2026, estimates some 178,725 asylum seekers from China. This is a far cry from the numbers seen during Hu Jintao’s reign, when it would stay between 7,000 and 21,000 annually.

The new data also shows some major swings in where Chinese people seek asylum, with Canada, Italy, and the United States seeing a continued and major surge.

With the new data, China has seen some ~1,330,000 Chinese asylum seekers under Xi Jiping’s years in power, compared with just ~162,000 during his predecessor Hu Jintao’s two mandate periods in power. The table below illustrates the dramatic shift in this regard since Xi took power and shows a continued strong upward movement after the lifting of the last COVID restrictions.

[...]

Italy now accounts for nearly ~2.2% of all Chinese asylum seekers worldwide, while the EU as a whole received 9,219 Chinese asylum seekers 2025, or ~5.2% of global total.

In other Europe-related developments, the number of people choosing Russia, 295 in 2019, has collapsed to only 5 people in 2025, and either at zero or in single-digits the entire COVID restriction period.

Other noteworthy figures show South Africa as the only South/East/West African country that received any Chinese asylum seekers, while in the MENA region, Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are the only countries to receive them, though, except for Israel, in very limited numbers.

In the greater Asia-Pacific, Australia remains the only major destination for Chinese asylum seekers, but having seen a significant drop from 17,668 to 10,426, while New Zealand, still rare, grew from 74 to 555. Many, such as Japan, records zero asylum seekers for all the years between 2019 and 2025, South Korea being a very rare exception (2,606 in 2019 and 2,181 in 2025). The few others that have received any at all are all either in single or double digits, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nauro, and Vanuatu. Asia continues to be a very rare destination for Chinese asylum seekers, with no change in sight.

In the Americas, both Canada and the US have seen major growth. In Canada, it grew from 2,873 to 6,425, while in the US it went from 68,794 to 147,909. Other noteworthy developments are a near collapse in asylum seekers choosing Brazil (from 4,616 to 798), while Costa Rica is the only Central American country to receive significant numbers, rising sharply from 152 to 619. Most other countries in the Americas received either no asylum seekers at all, or very small numbers.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47964660

Archived

The knocks came at 2am. Hiding out at a friend’s house in a Beijing suburb, Gao Yingjia and his wife, Geng Pengpeng, rushed downstairs to meet the group of plain-clothed men who said they were police officers. Their son, nearly six, was sleeping upstairs, and Gao and Geng wanted to minimise the ruckus. They knew their time was up.

Two months later, Gao is in a detention centre in Guangxi province, southern China, charged with “illegal use of information networks”. His arrest was part of the biggest crackdown on Christians in China since 2018. It has prompted alarm from the US government and human rights groups, with some analysts describing it as the death knell for unofficial churches in China.

“We both knew that as Christians in China, there were risks,” said Geng, who fled overseas for safety with her son. “But to be honest, you can never be fully prepared.”

Gao is a senior pastor in Zion Church, one of China’s most prominent underground “house churches” with thousands of members across the country. His arrest, and those of more than a dozen other church leaders, came after months of increasing pressure on the network. But the crackdown has not been limited to Zion, prompting fears of a nationwide assault on Chinese Christians.

[...]

Human Rights in China said more than 100 people had been detained in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang province, eastern China, in a raid on Christian groups last week. The US-based NGO said pressure had been mounting on Wenzhou’s Christians for months after a dispute about installing a Chinese national flag inside a local church.

Now Geng is grappling with a set of impossible choices: should she return to China to be nearer to her husband, but risk arrest herself? Should she stay in Thailand, a country that has relaxed visa policies for Chinese nationals but has a history of complying with deportation requests from Beijing? Should she go elsewhere? Earlier in her religious journey, she sometimes felt her prayers would hit the ceiling and come back down. Now her faith is steadfast, but she’s waiting for guidance: “Sometimes I wonder, is this real?”

[...]

China has five officially recognised religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism, but religious activities outside of officially sanctioned institutions are banned. Christians in particular have long gathered in unofficial house churches to worship away from the eyes of the state.

[...]

In September, China introduced new rules banning unlicensed religious groups from holding online sermons. Xi Jinping, China’s leader, chaired a senior Communist party meeting in which he urged for the “Sinicization of religions”.

But pressure has been increasing on Chinese Christians all year. In May, the pastor Gao Quanfu from the Light of Zion church (a separate organisation to Zion) and his wife were arrested. Around the same time, several members of the Golden Lampstand Church, an evangelical network, were reportedly given lengthy prison sentences on charges of fraud. And over the summer, more than 100 Zion members were questioned by police and several physical branches forced to close.

[...]

About 3% of China’s population identify as Christian, according to official estimates, a level that has remained stable for over a decade despite efforts by churches to grow their numbers. But that figure could be an underestimate, considering the increasing risks of publicly identifying as a Christian. Another survey from 2018 suggested 7% of Chinese people believed in some kind of Christian deity.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47847537

Archived

China’s manipulation of the Interpol Red Notice system has reached a level of sophistication that poses a far-reaching danger to international law enforcement. Russia often remains the focus for many, as it is viewed as being the most prolific abuser of the system. But China is fast emerging as the more insidious threat.

As our readers will know, Red Notices are requests for provisional arrest pending extradition, circulated among police forces worldwide. The system works: thousands of dangerous fugitives are apprehended each year as a result. But authoritarian regimes have weaponised it. By issuing Red Notices through Interpol, states with poor human rights records can harness the police forces of democracies to pursue their opponents abroad.

China’s approach is different from Russia’s. Rather than relying primarily on extradition, Chinese authorities use Red Notices as one tool in a broader campaign of transnational repression. The notice locates the target. Then the pressure begins: threats against family members back home, asset freezes, surveillance, and relentless calls urging “voluntary” return. The so-called “persuasion to return” programme is profoundly misleadingly named.

The pretexts are revealing. Financial crime is the charge of choice – allegations of fraud, embezzlement, or money laundering that are difficult to verify and easy to fabricate. As one expert put it: if someone accuses you of murder, there needs to be a body; if someone accuses you of financial crimes, it is ones and zeros in the wrong ledger somewhere. China has used these charges to pursue businesspeople who have “Westernised,” political dissidents, Uyghur activists, followers of Falun Gong, and anyone else deemed a threat to the Chinese Communist Party.

[...]

The UK government’s recent overtures to Beijing make vigilance more pressing. Despite China’s well-documented human rights abuses – the persecution of Uyghurs, the crackdown in Hong Kong, the targeting of dissidents abroad – economic interests continue to drive policy. Those targeted by Chinese Red Notices often discover that economic relationships between states provide little protection when they find themselves detained at an airport or frozen out of the banking system.

Interpol has taken steps to address abuse. The Notices and Diffusion Task Force screens Red Notice requests before publication. But its review is limited – it cannot investigate the merits of every case, and as a result politically motivated requests can slip through.

[...]

China is not currently subject to Interpol’s corrective measures – enhanced scrutiny or suspension from the network – despite mounting evidence of systematic abuse. This makes vigilance all the more important. Those who find themselves in the crosshairs of a Chinese Red Notice must understand that the system offers them limited protection – and that experienced legal representation is essential from the outset.

[...]

Targeted by China Through Interpol? Your Options Explained -- (archived)

Red Notices are just one tool in a broader strategy of transnational repression that includes surveillance, asset freezes, and intense pressure on family members back home. If you find yourself in Beijing’s crosshairs, understanding the full picture is essential.

In 2025, incidents of transnational repression—efforts primarily by authoritarian governments to intimidate, harm, or even kill people they consider threats to their states, typically members of their diaspora, outside their borders—increased substantially worldwide.

Archived

[...]

Authoritarian states including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and others have stepped up digital and in-person transnational repression worldwide, including in developed states in Asia, Europe, North America, and the United Kingdom.

[...]

The global spike in transnational repression has gained particular traction in Southeast Asia, among other parts of the world. According to UN experts, Southeast Asia has seen an “escalating wave of transnational repression [of activists, other dissidents, and refugees] by or linked to authorities in China and several Southeast Asian countries.” Thailand has become a hub of such acts this year. Human Rights Watch in 2025 called the kingdom “a ‘swap mart’ of dissidents from other regional states, who pay Bangkok back by targeting Thai critics living in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.”

[...]

The biggest offenders driving the trend

[...]

The gruesome incidents involving Southeast Asian dissidents across borders [include] Thai activists who were found handcuffed and dead in the Mekong River, with their stomachs opened and concrete poured into their bodies in what appeared to be an assassination in Laos. The Human Rights Watch investigation found that other Thai anti-monarchy activists have disappeared or been detained in Vietnam, or secretly deported back to Thailand, while other activists have disappeared in Cambodia and Laos, their cases conspicuously unsolved. The report also shares instances of other nationals going missing, killed, or abducted in Thailand, such as the disappearance [PDF] of Laotian democracy and human rights advocates and a Malaysian transgender LGBT rights influencer who was repatriated.

[...]

A major reason that transnational repression across borders has increased is because of “a significant number of cases of Chinese transnational repression.” For instance, an April report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) showed that Chinese transnational repression had recently become so omnipresent that it is effective in at least twenty-three countries, as well as at the United Nations. China is by far the biggest user of transnational repression in the world.

[...]

The United States, Europe, and many other developed states are devoting fewer resources to addressing the problem, despite warnings by some lawmakers and attempts to pass legislation about transnational repression as well as surveillance by major autocratic powers. (Congress introduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act in 2025, but it has not passed, and Canada has begun to take steps to combat transnational Chinese repression.)

In part, this decline in enforcement and highlighting of transnational repression is because, as mentioned above, many developed countries have refocused their human rights policies on other issues. While some states have pushed back against such repression in the past, many countries are now prioritizing closer ties to authoritarian economic powers and downplaying repressive and even fatal actions by their authoritarian counterparts.

[...]

In one of many examples of this trend, in June 2025 Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Canada. They agreed to a reset in relations, including re-establishing high commissions in Delhi and Ottawa. This reset came following two years of significant bilateral diplomatic tensions after Justin Trudeau, who was then Canada’s prime minister, publicly accused India of orchestrating the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar—a Canadian citizen and prominent Sikh separatist—outside Vancouver in 2023.

[...]

Other global leaders have taken the same approach as Carney toward China, India, Russia and other autocratic states. Germany and Vietnam have in recent years rapidly expanded their strategic and economic links, even though Germany accused Vietnam, one of the most authoritarian states in the world, of abducting a Vietnamese businessman from Berlin in 2017. French President Emanuel Macron recently visited China and held warm meetings with Xi, even though Beijing has stepped up intimidation of critics of the Chinese regime in France. China has even tried to use French laws to silence Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities living in France.

[...]

There will likely be more instances of these kinds of efforts in the future, especially since there appear to be fewer efforts to defend against human rights abuses. Having sent the message to China, India, Russia, and others that there are fewer safeguards against autocrats’ power beyond their borders, developed countries—and the world—will likely have to contend with these types of intimidation tactics and crimes occurring more often within their own.

This paper sets out a repertoire of repression operating to criminalise and repress recent climate and environmental protest globally. Deploying a novel mixed methods approach, involving a comparative quantitative and qualitative analysis of a sample of 14 countries, we identify that repression and criminalisation are global phenomena – spanning the Global South and North. The repertoire of repression includes: i) enactments of new anti-protest laws; ii) creative and strategic use of existing legislation and legal processes; iii) police action, such as arrests, surveillance, harassment and other forms of police violence; iv) disappearances and killings; and v) vilification. We argue that this repression is a complex eco-system involving state and non-state actors, laws and legal processes, social and media discourses which operate to deplete, deter and delegitimise protest, and distract attention from violent or harmful political structures.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43763604

Archive link

European and Ukrainian leaders have officially launched an International Claims Commission in The Hague, marking a significant step toward accountability and reparations for the damage caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The new body is tasked with processing and adjudicating claims related to losses suffered by the Ukrainian state, businesses, and individuals since the start of the war.

The establishment of the Commission reflects growing international consensus that victims of the conflict should have access to a structured, legal mechanism to seek compensation. According to European officials, more than 80,000 claims have already been submitted, highlighting the vast scale of destruction to infrastructure, housing, industry, and livelihoods across Ukraine.

...

The International Claims Commission is designed to operate as an independent and rules-based mechanism. Its mandate includes reviewing evidence, assessing damages, and determining the validity and value of claims arising from the conflict. While it does not itself enforce payments, the Commission represents a crucial institutional framework that could underpin future compensation arrangements.

Locating the Commission in The Hague — a city internationally recognized as a center for justice and international law — underscores the legal and symbolic weight of the initiative. European leaders emphasized that the Commission complements existing international justice efforts and reinforces the principle that violations of international law carry consequences.

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For Ukraine, the launch of the Commission represents an important diplomatic achievement and a step toward long-term recovery and reconstruction ... For Europe, the Commission sends a broader message: accountability and reparations are integral to any durable peace. By creating a formal mechanism now, European states aim to ensure that compensation is not treated as an afterthought, but as a core element of post-war justice laying the groundwork for future reparations and reinforcing the international rules-based order.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47329586

Archived

[...]

Despite legal prohibitions, the employment of minors persists, especially in less-developed regions like the Western and rural provinces. Children from these areas are often recruited into small workshops, informal sectors, and manufacturing supply chains, including electronics and toy production. A specific form of exploitation involves the student-worker system, where vocational schools place students, sometimes as young as 16, into factories for long hours of repetitive labor irrelevant to their studies. Refusal to participate in these mandatory “internships” often results in the student being threatened with the loss of funding or graduation status, creating a coercive labor condition.

A distinct and systemic issue is the state-sponsored coercive labor programs operating in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). This system compels Uyghur and other ethnic minority populations, including minors, into forced labor through mass internment and “labor transfer programs.” This exploitation is embedded in state policy, targeting industries like cotton and solar polysilicon for the goal of forced assimilation and social control. The coercive nature of this state-enforced labor represents a severe human rights abuse in the supply chain.

[...]

Effective enforcement is hampered by systemic challenges and a lack of resources. The number of labor inspectors is insufficient to monitor the vast number of workplaces, especially in the informal sector where violations are common. Enforcement relies on periodic, campaign-like factory investigations rather than routine supervision. A lack of transparency and accountability, coupled with local officials prioritizing economic interests, prevents the rigorous application of the law. Inadequate penalties and sporadic enforcement are often insufficient to deter employers from violating child labor prohibitions.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43381608

EU warns of 'cultural erasure' in China as human rights situation in the country shows 'no substantive sign of improvement'

The EU criticizes China's "systemic and severe restrictions on the exercise of fundamental freedoms and on the right of minorities" to enjoy their own culture, and to use their own language, in private and public, including in the field of education, a statement by the EU Delegation in China reads.

"These restrictions risk leading to cultural erasure."

In spite of many engagements, "unfortunately, the overall human rights situation in China showed no substantive sign of improvement," the EU statement reads.

The situation in Xinjiang remains serious. Numerous credible reports, including the assessment issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), indicate serious human rights violations that “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”. The EU remains deeply troubled by continuing reports of forced labour and state‑imposed labour transfer schemes involving Uyghurs both within Xinjiang and to other provinces.

The human rights situation in Tibet remains equally alarming. This applies both to the Tibet Autonomous Region and to Tibetan areas of Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, where similar patterns of restrictions have been reported. Reports continue to document far-reaching state control over religious life, intensified surveillance of monasteries, and the imposition of mandatory boarding schools, where Tibetan children are separated from their families and educated primarily in Mandarin. The closure of Tibetan-language schools, and the marginalisation of Tibetan-language instruction are deeply troubling.

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The EU continues to criticize the enforced disappearance since 1995 of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama. No credible information is provided on his whereabouts or well-being. We continue to call on China to respect and protect the rights of persons belonging to religious groups to exercise their religious freedoms without interference. The selection of religious leaders should happen without government interference and in accordance with religious norms, including for the succession of the Dalai Lama.

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The EU also remains concerned about the situation in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where policy shifts have resulted in a marked reduction in the use of Mongolian as a language of instruction and a narrowing of space for cultural and linguistic expression. The move from Mongolian as a vehicle of instruction to its relegation as a stand‑alone subject stands in contrast with official commitments to ethnic harmony and cultural diversity, and risks accelerating the erosion of the Mongolian community’s cultural and linguistic identity.

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The EU ... calls for the immediate and unconditional release of, among others, Gulshan Abbas, Anya Sengdra, Ekpar Asat, Chadrel Rinpoche, Rahile Dawut, Ding Jiaxi, Ding Yuande, Dong Yuyu, Pastor Mingri (Ezra) Jin, Gao Zhen, Gao Zhisheng, Go Sherab Gyatso, Golog Palden, He Fangmei, Huang Qi, Huang Xueqin, Hushtar Isa, Yalkun Isa, Ji Xiaolong, Li Yanhe, Peng Lifa, Qin Yongming, Ruan Xiaohuan, Tashi Dorje, Tashpolat Tiyip, Sakharov Prize winner Ilham Tohti, Wang Bingzhang, Pastor Wang Yi, Kamile Wayit, Xie Yang, Xu Na, Xu Zhiyong, Yang Hengjung, Yang Maodong, Yu Wensheng, Pastor Zhang Chunlei, Tara Zhang Yadi and Zhang Zhan, as well as EU citizen Gui Minhai whose right to consular access must be respected.

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The EU underscores the essential role of freedom of expression, media independence and access to information in ensuring accountable and effective governance. In China, these freedoms remain severely constrained ... The EU strongly promotes global gender equality and women and girls full enjoyment of human rights [and] reaffirms its commitment to LGBTI persons’ full enjoyment of human rights.

"We are concerned about the rising challenges faced by China's LGBTI community, including the restriction on the freedom of association, online censorship, and intimidation of activists," the EU says.

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In Hong Kong, fundamental rights and freedoms have further eroded.

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China must also respect the principle of non-refoulement, and refrain from any extraterritorial activity, including transnational repression, that is not in line with international law.

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