Hotznplotzn

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49335350

Archived

[...]

Songs are never just songs.

Across the world, music entertains and comforts, but it also carries history, belief, and identity. It teaches children language and values. It celebrates weddings and new life, marks funerals and loss, and keeps community bonds alive. In difficult times, music helps people endure. It can regulate mood, strengthen memory, and remind us who we are.

That is why the reported banning and restriction of Uyghur songs by Communist China in East Turkistan (aka Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) is so alarming. When Chinese authorities label Uyghur music “problematic,” the target is not merely sound, it is culture itself.

Reports indicate that Uyghur songs are being flagged for having religious meaning, for “distorting Uyghur history,” for “inciting separatism,” or for promoting “discontent” with the society. But these categories are so broad that, in practice, almost any Uyghur song could become a target. If a song mentions faith, homeland, traditional values, or collective memory, it can be reinterpreted as political and “problematic”.

[...]

This recalls the “Cultural Revolution”, when many Uyghur songs were banned or altered to align with Chinese communist ideology. Today, few could imagine that Uyghurs are once again living through one of the darkest periods in human history. Yet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples live in a region where the reality resembles a renewed “Cultural Revolution”, where traditions must be “corrected” or disappear. The fear today is that Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples are once again being pushed into a controlled cultural reality, where traditions must be reshaped or erased.

These are the results of Chinese official policies, including a statement reportedly announced on August 10, 2017: “Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins. Completely shovel up the roots of ‘two-faced people,’ dig them out, and vow to fight these two-faced people until the end.” Human rights researchers, journalists, and advocacy groups have documented mass detention, pervasive surveillance, pressure on religious practice, and policies that reach deeply into family life and education. Dozens of governments have used the term “genocide,” while the United Nations has raised concerns that the scale and nature of abuses may amount to crimes against humanity.

This is not only about politics. It is about a nation’s right to exist as itself.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49336085

Archived

Russia's occupation authorities in Ukraine's Kherson region are sending Ukrainian children to Russia for military-style training, according to the National Resistance Center.

The latest case involves 24 teenagers who were taken to the Russian city of Volgograd under the name of an educational program called “Pride of the Nation. The Path to Development”, reports Digi24. Officials described the trip as a learning opportunity. Ukrainian sources say the real goal was very different. [...]

Teenagers were placed in the Avangard defense and sports camp. There, they received training in drone operation, basic military roles, cyber-related activities, and tactical movement. Alongside this, the children took part in daily ideological sessions. These included staged patriotic events and museum visits focused on Russia’s war narrative. Analysts say the children were taught to see war as something normal and necessary.

According to the Center, schools in occupied areas were ordered to provide a set number of children. Principals were given quotas.

Parents were placed under pressure and were told participation was strongly recommended. Some families were warned that refusal could lead to problems with welfare payments, school records, or other basic services.

Also Happening in Other Regions

The Center also points to the role of Volodymyr Saldo, the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region. His office is said to manage transport, lists of children, and coordination with Russian military youth groups. These programs are also used to promote his public image.

[...]

In other news, Russia launched campaigns of forced drafts in occupied Donbas targeting sick, disabled, and the untrained individuals.

According to Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), men conscripted from occupied Donbas—including individuals with disabilities or serious medical conditions—are being thrown into frontline assaults with little regard for survival ...

Russian unit commanders have publicly acknowledged the severity of the situation, admitting that many conscripts received neither medical screening nor proper military training ...

As conditions deteriorate, unrest has reportedly begun to surface within these formations, while personnel are increasingly treated as disposable resources rather than soldiers ...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49335350

Archived

[...]

Songs are never just songs.

Across the world, music entertains and comforts, but it also carries history, belief, and identity. It teaches children language and values. It celebrates weddings and new life, marks funerals and loss, and keeps community bonds alive. In difficult times, music helps people endure. It can regulate mood, strengthen memory, and remind us who we are.

That is why the reported banning and restriction of Uyghur songs by Communist China in East Turkistan (aka Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) is so alarming. When Chinese authorities label Uyghur music “problematic,” the target is not merely sound, it is culture itself.

Reports indicate that Uyghur songs are being flagged for having religious meaning, for “distorting Uyghur history,” for “inciting separatism,” or for promoting “discontent” with the society. But these categories are so broad that, in practice, almost any Uyghur song could become a target. If a song mentions faith, homeland, traditional values, or collective memory, it can be reinterpreted as political and “problematic”.

[...]

This recalls the “Cultural Revolution”, when many Uyghur songs were banned or altered to align with Chinese communist ideology. Today, few could imagine that Uyghurs are once again living through one of the darkest periods in human history. Yet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples live in a region where the reality resembles a renewed “Cultural Revolution”, where traditions must be “corrected” or disappear. The fear today is that Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples are once again being pushed into a controlled cultural reality, where traditions must be reshaped or erased.

These are the results of Chinese official policies, including a statement reportedly announced on August 10, 2017: “Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins. Completely shovel up the roots of ‘two-faced people,’ dig them out, and vow to fight these two-faced people until the end.” Human rights researchers, journalists, and advocacy groups have documented mass detention, pervasive surveillance, pressure on religious practice, and policies that reach deeply into family life and education. Dozens of governments have used the term “genocide,” while the United Nations has raised concerns that the scale and nature of abuses may amount to crimes against humanity.

This is not only about politics. It is about a nation’s right to exist as itself.

[...]

Archived

Russia's occupation authorities in Ukraine's Kherson region are sending Ukrainian children to Russia for military-style training, according to the National Resistance Center.

The latest case involves 24 teenagers who were taken to the Russian city of Volgograd under the name of an educational program called “Pride of the Nation. The Path to Development”, reports Digi24. Officials described the trip as a learning opportunity. Ukrainian sources say the real goal was very different. [...]

Teenagers were placed in the Avangard defense and sports camp. There, they received training in drone operation, basic military roles, cyber-related activities, and tactical movement. Alongside this, the children took part in daily ideological sessions. These included staged patriotic events and museum visits focused on Russia’s war narrative. Analysts say the children were taught to see war as something normal and necessary.

According to the Center, schools in occupied areas were ordered to provide a set number of children. Principals were given quotas.

Parents were placed under pressure and were told participation was strongly recommended. Some families were warned that refusal could lead to problems with welfare payments, school records, or other basic services.

Also Happening in Other Regions

The Center also points to the role of Volodymyr Saldo, the Moscow-installed head of the Kherson region. His office is said to manage transport, lists of children, and coordination with Russian military youth groups. These programs are also used to promote his public image.

[...]

In other news, Russia launched campaigns of forced drafts in occupied Donbas targeting sick, disabled, and the untrained individuals.

According to Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), men conscripted from occupied Donbas—including individuals with disabilities or serious medical conditions—are being thrown into frontline assaults with little regard for survival ...

Russian unit commanders have publicly acknowledged the severity of the situation, admitting that many conscripts received neither medical screening nor proper military training ...

As conditions deteriorate, unrest has reportedly begun to surface within these formations, while personnel are increasingly treated as disposable resources rather than soldiers ...

Archived

[...]

Songs are never just songs.

Across the world, music entertains and comforts, but it also carries history, belief, and identity. It teaches children language and values. It celebrates weddings and new life, marks funerals and loss, and keeps community bonds alive. In difficult times, music helps people endure. It can regulate mood, strengthen memory, and remind us who we are.

That is why the reported banning and restriction of Uyghur songs by Communist China in East Turkistan (aka Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) is so alarming. When Chinese authorities label Uyghur music “problematic,” the target is not merely sound, it is culture itself.

Reports indicate that Uyghur songs are being flagged for having religious meaning, for “distorting Uyghur history,” for “inciting separatism,” or for promoting “discontent” with the society. But these categories are so broad that, in practice, almost any Uyghur song could become a target. If a song mentions faith, homeland, traditional values, or collective memory, it can be reinterpreted as political and “problematic”.

[...]

This recalls the “Cultural Revolution”, when many Uyghur songs were banned or altered to align with Chinese communist ideology. Today, few could imagine that Uyghurs are once again living through one of the darkest periods in human history. Yet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples live in a region where the reality resembles a renewed “Cultural Revolution”, where traditions must be “corrected” or disappear. The fear today is that Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic peoples are once again being pushed into a controlled cultural reality, where traditions must be reshaped or erased.

These are the results of Chinese official policies, including a statement reportedly announced on August 10, 2017: “Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins. Completely shovel up the roots of ‘two-faced people,’ dig them out, and vow to fight these two-faced people until the end.” Human rights researchers, journalists, and advocacy groups have documented mass detention, pervasive surveillance, pressure on religious practice, and policies that reach deeply into family life and education. Dozens of governments have used the term “genocide,” while the United Nations has raised concerns that the scale and nature of abuses may amount to crimes against humanity.

This is not only about politics. It is about a nation’s right to exist as itself.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49279915

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed on Monday to expand cooperation in sectors such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, chips and critical minerals, according to the Blue House.

[...]

South Korea is a global leader in semiconductors and the countries signed a memorandum of understanding for chip industry cooperation, including those related to AI, Seoul's presidential Blue House said in a statement.

[...]

Meloni and Lee also discussed collaboration in joint research projects and exchanges, tourism and culture cooperation, and reaffirmed their commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Italy is one of South Korea's four largest trading partners in the European Union, the Blue House said.

Meloni, who is on an Asian tour also taking in Japan and Oman, is on the first state visit by an Italian leader to South Korea in 19 years, it said.

[...]

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed on Monday to expand cooperation in sectors such as artificial intelligence, aerospace, chips and critical minerals, according to the Blue House.

[...]

South Korea is a global leader in semiconductors and the countries signed a memorandum of understanding for chip industry cooperation, including those related to AI, Seoul's presidential Blue House said in a statement.

[...]

Meloni and Lee also discussed collaboration in joint research projects and exchanges, tourism and culture cooperation, and reaffirmed their commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Italy is one of South Korea's four largest trading partners in the European Union, the Blue House said.

Meloni, who is on an Asian tour also taking in Japan and Oman, is on the first state visit by an Italian leader to South Korea in 19 years, it said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277840

TL;DR:

• Chinese officials say Moscow knew about the US preparations for an operation in Venezuela. Moreover, in late December, Russia began pulling diplomats and their families out of Caracas.
• Russia has not informed China about its assessment of the situation in Venezuela, however, which has caused bewilderment in Beijing and called into question the nature of relations between the two countries.
• Because of U.S. actions, China risks losing billions of dollars in oil loans to Venezuela. As a result, Beijing has found itself in an extremely disadvantageous position, yielding to Washington.
• China is discussing the version that the failure of Russian air defense systems could not be an accident, but a sign of a high level of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. In this connection, Beijing is increasingly asking whether Russia can be considered a reliable ally.

Archived

[...]

That an intervention [by the US in Venezuela] was imminent was understood by Russia, one of Venezuela’s most enthusiastic partners over the last two decades. Towards the end of last month Moscow began pulling diplomats and their families out of the capital, Caracas.

Russia’s assessment of the situation, and its withdrawal of personnel, were not shared with Beijing, according to well-placed sources in China. This has caused eyebrows to be raised about what it means for a relationship between the two countries that is supposed to be “comprehensive”, “mutually beneficial” and “eternal”.

Beijing was not simply blindsided by the US operation, it was embarrassed by it. Qiu Xiaoqi, China’s special envoy to Latin America, had arrived in Caracas and met Maduro hours before the latter was captured. Shortly before, Wang Yi and Yván Gil, the two countries’ foreign ministers, had spoken by phone to affirm China’s “solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence and stability.”

[...]

These words would serve less as a show of resolve than a measure of how limited China’s ability was to translate diplomatic language into meaningful protection or leverage on the ground.

China stands to lose out from the many billions of dollars of loans it has made to Venezuela in return for its oil. It also stands to lose the half a million barrels of oil a day it has been getting from its ally: about 4 per cent of its total oil imports. Such was Beijing’s confidence in its partnership with Maduro and his regime that it invested an estimated $9 billion in building a petrochemical plant in Jieyang, Guangdong province, capable of producing 20 million tons of refined oil a year.

[...]

It is easy to make crass comments about the significance of losing face in Chinese culture. In this case, though, the fact that Beijing has been caught badly out of position, outmanoeuvred by the US and let down by Russia, has sparked vigorous discussion in China — and, in some quarters, speculation that the failure of Russian-built defence systems in Venezuela was not a coincidence, but evidence of high-level co-operation between Moscow and Washington.

[...]

Over the last few years, the question of whether Russia is both a reliable and a good ally has become one of the key talking points among policymakers, advisers and thinkers in China.

Professor Jia Qingguo, former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and one of the most well-connected figures in Chinese strategic thinking, noted that while Russia’s isolation because of the war in Ukraine had brought economic benefits to China, these have come at a cost.

In particular, he noted in an interview just before the Maduro operation that Moscow’s dependence on China has meant that the latter’s current and future relations with Europe have been compromised. As such, he added, a solution to the war in Ukraine would be of benefit to China.

[...]

For Chinese strategists, the problem is not simply reputational damage in Europe or the US, but the deeper risk of being tied to a partner whose way of doing things cuts directly against China’s own instincts about order, predictability and control.

[...]

For policymakers in Beijing, the contrast is stark: one partner leans on force, disruption and intimidation; the other offers markets, rules and negotiated stability. The question increasingly being debated inside China is not whether Russia is useful in pushing back against American pressure, but whether following Russia’s example leads China towards the kind of global role it actually wants to play.

[...]

As Charter97, an exiled Belarusian rights organization has framed it, China Has Begun To Doubt Russia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277108

Archived

[...]

In 2024, [Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran’s police chief and a vocal supporter of employing force against protesters] visited China and signed a “memorandum on law enforcement cooperation” with China’s minister of public security, Wang XiaoHong, pledging to “upgrade law enforcement and security cooperation” and “strengthen practical collaboration in areas such as counterterrorism” to contribute to regional stability, according to China’s Xinhua state news agency. Neither Xinhua nor IRNA, Iran’s own state news agency, released the memorandum’s full text.

[...]

The People’s Public Security University of China, the country’s top police academy, has run “Advanced Iranian Police Officers Training Programs” since 2015, organized by China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to Chinese school materials and state media reports reviewed by Kharon. Such Iranian cooperation appears to have deepened since, and in 2018, Iran’s National Police University signed a formal agreement institutionalizing more exchange and training programs.

The relationship remains active. On December 25, 2025, just days before Iran’s protests erupted, its ambassador to China visited the People’s Public Security University, pledging to continue “pragmatic cooperation in law enforcement and security,” according to a school press release.

[...]

Tiandy Technologies, a Chinese provider of video surveillance tech, has built deep roots in Iran—and in China’s security establishment.

Its equipment, which flows through sales agents into a country where surveillance technology has reportedly been used to monitor the protests and track dissidents, offers one link between China’s security industry and Tehran’s monitoring capabilities.

[...]

Tiandy Technologies says on its website that it has worked in China's public security sector for more than 20 years, serving clients including the Ministry of Public Security, which awarded it a first-class science and technology award in 2018.

[...]

Tiandy Center is a subsidiary of Iran-based Ati Negar Basir Elektronik Company and a self-described “distributor of Tiandy Products.” An archived version of its website from July 2025 listed 18 offices across Iran and advertised that if a company becomes a Tiandy representative in Iran, it can also represent other Chinese video-surveillance brands, including Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. The U.S. added both those companies to the Entity List in 2019, citing their roles in China’s repression and “high-technology surveillance” of minorities, and it later designated both as companies in China’s military industrial complex.

Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar Company is another distributor of Tiandy products in Iran. According to an archived version of its website from last month, the company listed Iranian government entities as its customers, including the Iran Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the national traffic police. In addition to Tiandy products, Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar also said it was a representative for Hangzhou Hikvision and Zhejiang Dahua.

[...]

In response to Iran’s protests and crackdown, China has staked out a clear public position: for its security and trading partner’s “stability” and against U.S. intervention.

“We hope the Iranian government and people will overcome the current difficulties and uphold stability in the country,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said at a press briefing Wednesday. China opposes, she added, “external interference in other countries’ internal affairs.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277840

TL;DR:

• Chinese officials say Moscow knew about the US preparations for an operation in Venezuela. Moreover, in late December, Russia began pulling diplomats and their families out of Caracas.
• Russia has not informed China about its assessment of the situation in Venezuela, however, which has caused bewilderment in Beijing and called into question the nature of relations between the two countries.
• Because of U.S. actions, China risks losing billions of dollars in oil loans to Venezuela. As a result, Beijing has found itself in an extremely disadvantageous position, yielding to Washington.
• China is discussing the version that the failure of Russian air defense systems could not be an accident, but a sign of a high level of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. In this connection, Beijing is increasingly asking whether Russia can be considered a reliable ally.

Archived

[...]

That an intervention [by the US in Venezuela] was imminent was understood by Russia, one of Venezuela’s most enthusiastic partners over the last two decades. Towards the end of last month Moscow began pulling diplomats and their families out of the capital, Caracas.

Russia’s assessment of the situation, and its withdrawal of personnel, were not shared with Beijing, according to well-placed sources in China. This has caused eyebrows to be raised about what it means for a relationship between the two countries that is supposed to be “comprehensive”, “mutually beneficial” and “eternal”.

Beijing was not simply blindsided by the US operation, it was embarrassed by it. Qiu Xiaoqi, China’s special envoy to Latin America, had arrived in Caracas and met Maduro hours before the latter was captured. Shortly before, Wang Yi and Yván Gil, the two countries’ foreign ministers, had spoken by phone to affirm China’s “solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence and stability.”

[...]

These words would serve less as a show of resolve than a measure of how limited China’s ability was to translate diplomatic language into meaningful protection or leverage on the ground.

China stands to lose out from the many billions of dollars of loans it has made to Venezuela in return for its oil. It also stands to lose the half a million barrels of oil a day it has been getting from its ally: about 4 per cent of its total oil imports. Such was Beijing’s confidence in its partnership with Maduro and his regime that it invested an estimated $9 billion in building a petrochemical plant in Jieyang, Guangdong province, capable of producing 20 million tons of refined oil a year.

[...]

It is easy to make crass comments about the significance of losing face in Chinese culture. In this case, though, the fact that Beijing has been caught badly out of position, outmanoeuvred by the US and let down by Russia, has sparked vigorous discussion in China — and, in some quarters, speculation that the failure of Russian-built defence systems in Venezuela was not a coincidence, but evidence of high-level co-operation between Moscow and Washington.

[...]

Over the last few years, the question of whether Russia is both a reliable and a good ally has become one of the key talking points among policymakers, advisers and thinkers in China.

Professor Jia Qingguo, former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and one of the most well-connected figures in Chinese strategic thinking, noted that while Russia’s isolation because of the war in Ukraine had brought economic benefits to China, these have come at a cost.

In particular, he noted in an interview just before the Maduro operation that Moscow’s dependence on China has meant that the latter’s current and future relations with Europe have been compromised. As such, he added, a solution to the war in Ukraine would be of benefit to China.

[...]

For Chinese strategists, the problem is not simply reputational damage in Europe or the US, but the deeper risk of being tied to a partner whose way of doing things cuts directly against China’s own instincts about order, predictability and control.

[...]

For policymakers in Beijing, the contrast is stark: one partner leans on force, disruption and intimidation; the other offers markets, rules and negotiated stability. The question increasingly being debated inside China is not whether Russia is useful in pushing back against American pressure, but whether following Russia’s example leads China towards the kind of global role it actually wants to play.

[...]

As Charter97, an exiled Belarusian rights organization has framed it, China Has Begun To Doubt Russia.

TL;DR:

• Chinese officials say Moscow knew about the US preparations for an operation in Venezuela. Moreover, in late December, Russia began pulling diplomats and their families out of Caracas.
• Russia has not informed China about its assessment of the situation in Venezuela, however, which has caused bewilderment in Beijing and called into question the nature of relations between the two countries.
• Because of U.S. actions, China risks losing billions of dollars in oil loans to Venezuela. As a result, Beijing has found itself in an extremely disadvantageous position, yielding to Washington.
• China is discussing the version that the failure of Russian air defense systems could not be an accident, but a sign of a high level of cooperation between Moscow and Washington. In this connection, Beijing is increasingly asking whether Russia can be considered a reliable ally.

Archived

[...]

That an intervention [by the US in Venezuela] was imminent was understood by Russia, one of Venezuela’s most enthusiastic partners over the last two decades. Towards the end of last month Moscow began pulling diplomats and their families out of the capital, Caracas.

Russia’s assessment of the situation, and its withdrawal of personnel, were not shared with Beijing, according to well-placed sources in China. This has caused eyebrows to be raised about what it means for a relationship between the two countries that is supposed to be “comprehensive”, “mutually beneficial” and “eternal”.

Beijing was not simply blindsided by the US operation, it was embarrassed by it. Qiu Xiaoqi, China’s special envoy to Latin America, had arrived in Caracas and met Maduro hours before the latter was captured. Shortly before, Wang Yi and Yván Gil, the two countries’ foreign ministers, had spoken by phone to affirm China’s “solidarity and firm support for Venezuela in defending its sovereignty, independence and stability.”

[...]

These words would serve less as a show of resolve than a measure of how limited China’s ability was to translate diplomatic language into meaningful protection or leverage on the ground.

China stands to lose out from the many billions of dollars of loans it has made to Venezuela in return for its oil. It also stands to lose the half a million barrels of oil a day it has been getting from its ally: about 4 per cent of its total oil imports. Such was Beijing’s confidence in its partnership with Maduro and his regime that it invested an estimated $9 billion in building a petrochemical plant in Jieyang, Guangdong province, capable of producing 20 million tons of refined oil a year.

[...]

It is easy to make crass comments about the significance of losing face in Chinese culture. In this case, though, the fact that Beijing has been caught badly out of position, outmanoeuvred by the US and let down by Russia, has sparked vigorous discussion in China — and, in some quarters, speculation that the failure of Russian-built defence systems in Venezuela was not a coincidence, but evidence of high-level co-operation between Moscow and Washington.

[...]

Over the last few years, the question of whether Russia is both a reliable and a good ally has become one of the key talking points among policymakers, advisers and thinkers in China.

Professor Jia Qingguo, former dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and one of the most well-connected figures in Chinese strategic thinking, noted that while Russia’s isolation because of the war in Ukraine had brought economic benefits to China, these have come at a cost.

In particular, he noted in an interview just before the Maduro operation that Moscow’s dependence on China has meant that the latter’s current and future relations with Europe have been compromised. As such, he added, a solution to the war in Ukraine would be of benefit to China.

[...]

For Chinese strategists, the problem is not simply reputational damage in Europe or the US, but the deeper risk of being tied to a partner whose way of doing things cuts directly against China’s own instincts about order, predictability and control.

[...]

For policymakers in Beijing, the contrast is stark: one partner leans on force, disruption and intimidation; the other offers markets, rules and negotiated stability. The question increasingly being debated inside China is not whether Russia is useful in pushing back against American pressure, but whether following Russia’s example leads China towards the kind of global role it actually wants to play.

[...]

As Charter97, an exiled Belarusian rights organization has framed it, China Has Begun To Doubt Russia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/49277108

Archived

[...]

In 2024, [Ahmad-Reza Radan, Iran’s police chief and a vocal supporter of employing force against protesters] visited China and signed a “memorandum on law enforcement cooperation” with China’s minister of public security, Wang XiaoHong, pledging to “upgrade law enforcement and security cooperation” and “strengthen practical collaboration in areas such as counterterrorism” to contribute to regional stability, according to China’s Xinhua state news agency. Neither Xinhua nor IRNA, Iran’s own state news agency, released the memorandum’s full text.

[...]

The People’s Public Security University of China, the country’s top police academy, has run “Advanced Iranian Police Officers Training Programs” since 2015, organized by China’s Ministry of Public Security, according to Chinese school materials and state media reports reviewed by Kharon. Such Iranian cooperation appears to have deepened since, and in 2018, Iran’s National Police University signed a formal agreement institutionalizing more exchange and training programs.

The relationship remains active. On December 25, 2025, just days before Iran’s protests erupted, its ambassador to China visited the People’s Public Security University, pledging to continue “pragmatic cooperation in law enforcement and security,” according to a school press release.

[...]

Tiandy Technologies, a Chinese provider of video surveillance tech, has built deep roots in Iran—and in China’s security establishment.

Its equipment, which flows through sales agents into a country where surveillance technology has reportedly been used to monitor the protests and track dissidents, offers one link between China’s security industry and Tehran’s monitoring capabilities.

[...]

Tiandy Technologies says on its website that it has worked in China's public security sector for more than 20 years, serving clients including the Ministry of Public Security, which awarded it a first-class science and technology award in 2018.

[...]

Tiandy Center is a subsidiary of Iran-based Ati Negar Basir Elektronik Company and a self-described “distributor of Tiandy Products.” An archived version of its website from July 2025 listed 18 offices across Iran and advertised that if a company becomes a Tiandy representative in Iran, it can also represent other Chinese video-surveillance brands, including Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. The U.S. added both those companies to the Entity List in 2019, citing their roles in China’s repression and “high-technology surveillance” of minorities, and it later designated both as companies in China’s military industrial complex.

Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar Company is another distributor of Tiandy products in Iran. According to an archived version of its website from last month, the company listed Iranian government entities as its customers, including the Iran Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the national traffic police. In addition to Tiandy products, Elm va Sanat Hafez Gostar also said it was a representative for Hangzhou Hikvision and Zhejiang Dahua.

[...]

In response to Iran’s protests and crackdown, China has staked out a clear public position: for its security and trading partner’s “stability” and against U.S. intervention.

“We hope the Iranian government and people will overcome the current difficulties and uphold stability in the country,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said at a press briefing Wednesday. China opposes, she added, “external interference in other countries’ internal affairs.”