WASHINGTON AND LONDON — Three U.S. lawmakers have called for more scrutiny of NewsBreak, a popular news aggregation app in the United States, after Reuters reported it has Chinese origins and has used artificial intelligence tools to produce erroneous stories.

The Reuters story drew upon previously unreported court documents related to copyright infringement, cease-and-desist emails and a 2022 company memo registering concerns about “AI-generated stories” to identify at least 40 instances in which NewsBreak’s use of AI tools affected the communities it strives to serve.

“The only thing more terrifying than a company that deals in unchecked, artificially generated news, is one with deep ties to an adversarial foreign government,” said Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who chairs the Intelligence Committee.

“This is yet another example of the serious threat posed by technologies from countries of concern. It’s also a stark reminder that we need a holistic approach to addressing this threat — we simply cannot win the game of whack-a-mole with individual companies,” he said.

The lawmakers expressed concerns about NewsBreak’s current and historical links to Chinese investors, as well as the company’s presence in China, where many of its engineers are based.

In response to a request from Reuters for comment about the lawmakers’ statements, NewsBreak said it was an American company: “NewsBreak is a U.S. company and always has been. Any assertion to the contrary is not true,” a spokesperson said.

NewsBreak launched in the U.S. in 2015 as a subsidiary of Yidian, a Chinese news aggregation app. Both companies were founded by Jeff Zheng, the CEO of NewsBreak, and the companies share a U.S. patent registered in 2015 for an “Interest Engine” algorithm, which recommends news content based on a user’s interests and location, Reuters reported.

Yidian in 2017 received praise from ruling Communist Party officials in China for its efficiency in disseminating government propaganda. Reuters found no evidence that NewsBreak censored or produced news that was favorable to the Chinese government.

“This report brings to light serious questions about NewsBreak, its historical relationship with an entity that assisted the CCP, and to Chinese state-linked media,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House select committee on China, in a reference to Yidian and its former investor, state-linked media outlet Phoenix New Media.

Americans have the right to “full transparency” about any connections to the CCP from news distributors, Krishnamoorthi said, particularly with regard to the use of “opaque algorithms” and artificial intelligence tools to produce news.

Reuters reported the praise Yidian received from the Communist Party in 2017 but was unable to establish that NewsBreak has any current ties with the party.

U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican, said IDG Capital’s backing of NewsBreak indicated the app “deserves increased scrutiny.”

“We cannot allow our foreign adversaries access to American citizen’s data to weaponize them against America’s interests,” she said.

NewsBreak is a privately held start-up, whose primary backers are private equity firms San Francisco-based Francisco Partners and Beijing-based IDG Capital, Reuters reported. In February, IDG Capital was added to a list of dozens of Chinese companies the Pentagon said were allegedly working with Beijing’s military.

IDG Capital has previously said it has no association with the Chinese military and does not belong on that list. It declined to comment on the lawmaker’s reaction.

A spokesperson for Francisco Partners, which has previously declined to answer questions from Reuters on their investment in NewsBreak, described the story as “false and misleading” but declined to provide details beyond saying the description of them as a “primary backer” of NewsBreak was incorrect because their investment was less than 10%.

They did not provide documentation to prove the size of the holding. NewsBreak has told Reuters as recently as May 13 that Francisco Partners is NewsBreak’s primary investor. NewsBreak did not respond to two requests late Friday asking for documentation supporting the assertion.
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Taipei, Taiwan — China is pushing back against criticism by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week, denying claims it is pressuring countries not to attend next weekend’s peace conference in Switzerland and putting forward its own peace plan for the Ukraine war.   

After Zelenskyy accused China of “working hard” to prevent countries from participating in the summit at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 2, Beijing denied the Ukrainian president’s allegation Monday, saying Beijing remains “firmly committed to promoting talks for peace” and hopes the summit would not be “used to create bloc confrontation.”  

“Not attending it does not mean not supporting peace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Monday.  

“China has never sat idly by or fueled the flames, still less profiteered from the conflict. Instead, we have worked relentlessly for a cease-fire, and this has been highly commended by various parties, including Russia and Ukraine,” she added.   

Apart from pushing back against Zelenskyy’s criticism, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also put forward a Chinese peace plan Tuesday. 

“China believes that the world now needs to make more objective, balanced, positive, and constructive voices on the Ukraine crisis,” he told a joint press conference Tuesday with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.  

Wang pointed to “the six common understandings on political settlement of the Ukraine Crisis,” a document jointly issued by China and Brazil last month, as Beijing’s plan to facilitate the peace process for the Ukraine war.  

“In just one week, 45 countries from five continents have responded positively to the ‘six common understandings’ in different ways,” Wang said, noting that China will decide whether to join the “many summits” around the world independently. 

Some analysts say Beijing’s reluctance to join the Switzerland session, which Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Singapore will be attended by 106 countries and at least 70 heads of state, is an attempt to avoid being attacked during the conference for supporting Russia.  

“Beijing prefers to avoid this conference and instead, proposes its own vision to demonstrate that it is still committed to promoting peace,” Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University, told VOA in a written response.  

Other experts say Beijing also sees many Western countries that plan to attend the conference in Switzerland, including the United States, as lacking the sincerity to resolve the Ukraine war peacefully.   

“Beijing thinks Western countries that are attending the summit are not sincerely pro-peace,” said Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, adding that China says its vision for resolving the Ukraine conflict, which is through a peace process that should involve both Ukraine and Russia, is not compatible with that put forward by the West. 

“Beijing claims that the West is not sincere [about resolving the Ukraine War] and that there is a dual agenda in the West’s peace conference,” he told VOA by phone.   

Shift in Ukraine’s view of China   

While Beijing continues to portray itself as a neutral actor in the Ukraine war, Zelenskyy’s rare public criticism of China reflects a shift in Ukraine’s view of China. During a press conference at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Zelenskyy said it is unfortunate that China “is an instrument in the hands of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”   

Some analysts say Zelenskyy’s comments in Singapore show that Ukraine’s initial hope that China would be neutral in the war is diminishing.   

“One might say that there were some hopes in Kyiv’s leadership that Beijing would be neutral with regard to the war, [but] these hopes are now gone,” said Volodymyr Dubovyk, director of the Center for International Studies at the Odesa Mechnikov National University in Ukraine.  

While the shift in Zelenskyy’s tone toward China is notable, Dubovyk told VOA it is unclear whether this will have a lasting impact on Ukraine-China relations.  

“One might safely forecast that Beijing’s entanglement with Russia is only going to deepen, thus antagonizing Ukraine, yet China may still come [up] with a certain peace plan that would be less pro-Russian and more balanced,” he said.  

Following the spat between Beijing and Kyiv, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha held political consultations in Beijing on Wednesday regarding the war and bilateral relations. 

While Sun reiterated Beijing’s commitment to advance exchanges with Kyiv, Sybiha urged China to take part in the summit, arguing that Beijing could “make a practical contribution to achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”   

Umarov said Ukraine hopes to secure China’s participation in the summit because of Beijing’s influence in the world and over Russia.  

“The way to legitimize the summit is to have as many participants as possible, [but] I doubt Beijing will change its position on the war in Ukraine,” he told VOA.   

As Zelenskyy keeps urging countries to join the session, Zhu said he thinks China’s absence would reduce the importance of the conference.  

“With the absence of Russia and China, the summit’s significance will be reduced,” he told VOA.   
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washington — On Wednesday, wrapping up his three-day official visit to China, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan tweeted about fulfilling his long-held dream of visiting Urumqi and Kashgar in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China.

“For many years, I have had the opportunity to visit many historical cities that contributed to the establishment of the Turkic and Islamic civilization,” Fidan said in his tweet. “However, Urumqi and Kashgar always remained in my heart as a regret. Thanks to my contacts in China, I finally visited these two ancient cities.”

Xinjiang, often referred to as East Turkestan by Uyghurs and the Turkish diaspora, is home to nearly 12 million ethnically Turkic and Muslim Uyghurs. Experts highlight the Uyghurs’ significance in Ankara’s ties with Beijing because of shared ethnic and religious bonds.

“Turkish people have long held concern for the well-being of the Uyghurs, which influences decision-makers in the government,” Erkin Ekrem, director of the Ankara-based Uyghur Research Institute, told VOA. “Actions or inactions concerning Uyghurs can impact the outcomes of local or national elections each term.”

Turkey hosts nearly 50,000 Uyghurs, many of whom fled escalating repression in Xinjiang, establishing one of the largest Uyghur communities outside China.

Detention, imprisonment

Since 2017, following reports of China’s arbitrary mass detention and imprisonment of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other human rights violations against the Turkic Muslim population, the U.S. and several parliaments have designated China’s actions in Xinjiang as genocide.

In 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Office concluded in a report that Beijing’s actions toward Uyghurs might constitute crimes against humanity.

China denies these accusations, asserting that the measures in Xinjiang are acts of counterterrorism.

Historically, Turkey has allowed Uyghurs in the country some freedom to protest China’s treatment of Uyghurs. However, since urging China in 2019 to close the internment facilities and respect Uyghurs’ human rights, the Turkish government has not publicly criticized China, according to experts.

Turkey has long been pressured by China, one of its largest trade partners, to stop Uyghur advocates and organizations from calling out China’s repression, Ekrem said. “Turkey has made efforts to limit Uyghur activism within its borders,” he said, “but many Uyghur and East Turkestan groups and individuals operate within Turkish law, making it impossible for the government to completely comply with Chinese demands.”

During the trip, Fidan met with several high-ranking Chinese officials, including his counterpart, Wang Yi, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Chinese security chief Chen Wenqing. He also held talks with officials in Xinjiang.

In a statement following his meeting with Wang Yi in Beijing, Fidan described Urumqi and Kashgar as “ancient Turkic and Islamic” cities that serve as bridges between China, the Turkic world and the Islamic world. “They are symbols of our historical friendship and neighborliness,” Fidan said.

However, since 2017, China’s official messaging to Uyghurs in Xinjiang is that they are a non-Turkic group with deep roots in the Chinese nation.

According to Abdurresit Celil Karluk, professor at Haci Bayram Veli University in Ankara, Fidan’s emphasis on the Turkic and Islamic identity of Urumqi and Kashgar, along with his decision to visit these cities, was a diplomatic signal to his Chinese counterparts and the international community that Turkey remains concerned about the fate of the Uyghurs.

“To the best of my knowledge, previous high-level Turkish officials have not previously highlighted the Turko-Islamic identity of this region or Türkiye’s geocultural presence in the region during their visits to Beijing,” Karluk said in an email to VOA. “It seems that the message was intended for both China and Turkish domestic politics and the Uyghur diaspora.”

Repression rose

In the past, however, repression against the Uyghurs has steadily increased after each visit of high-level Turkish officials to “East Turkestan,” according to Karluk.

“Since the early 2000s until 2012, at least four top Turkish government officials, including [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, visited East Turkestan,” Karluk said. “Consequently, Uyghurs faced increasing repression, and since Erdogan’s visit in 2012, Uyghurs have endured ongoing genocide.”

While in China, Fidan prioritized trade talks between the two countries, seeking to boost Chinese investment in Turkey and attract more Chinese tourism to help balance the trade deficit.

“As you know, China is Turkey’s second-largest trading partner, and currently, there’s almost a $50 billion trade volume between the two countries,” Fidan told China Media Group. “However, it’s currently in favor of China, and during this trip, we are focusing on how to balance this trade deficit.”

According to Karluk, Turkey, as a developing country currently struggling with economic problems, seeks to benefit from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Conversely, China aims to utilize foreign diplomats’ “visits to the East Turkestan to counter accusations” of genocide by portraying these visits as evidence of normalcy.

“Fidan’s visit to East Turkestan may serve several purposes: While Türkiye seeks to demonstrate [to] the world its concern for the Uyghurs, it also reminds China of Türkiye’s deep ties to the region and thus Türkiye’s geopolitical presence in the region. China is trying to put a positive spin on its treatment of the Uyghurs,” he told VOA in an email.

Chinese media reported that Fidan stated Turkey is committed to the “One China” principle, opposes any actions undermining China’s territorial integrity, and agreed to “strengthen anti-terrorism” cooperation between the two countries.

Some advocates of Uyghur independence believe that by inviting the Turkish foreign minister to Xinjiang and securing support from Turkey, a prominent Turkic Muslim-majority country, China aims to diminish the impact of international condemnations of its actions against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities.

“[T]his maneuver will be perceived by the international community, particularly Western nations, as an endorsement of China’s genocidal regime,” Salih Hudayar, a member of the Washington-based Uyghur group East Turkestan Government in Exile, said in an email to VOA.
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SHANGHAI, China — Novo Nordisk is facing the prospect of intensifying competition in the promising Chinese market, where drugmakers are developing at least 15 generic versions of its diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss treatment Wegovy, clinical trial records showed.

The Danish drugmaker has high hopes that demand for its blockbuster drugs will surge in China, which is estimated to have the world’s highest number of people who are overweight or obese.

Ozempic won approval from China in 2021, and Novo Nordisk saw sales of the drug in the greater China region double to $698 million last year. It is expecting Wegovy to be approved this year.

But the patent on semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Wegovy and Ozempic, expires in China in 2026. Novo is also in the midst of a legal fight in the country over the patent.

An adverse court ruling could make it lose its semaglutide exclusivity even sooner and turn China into the first major market where Novo is stripped of patent protection for the drugs.

Those circumstances have drawn several Chinese drugmakers to the fray. At least 11 semaglutide drug candidates from Chinese firms are in the final stages of clinical trials, according to records in a clinical trial database reviewed by Reuters.

“Ozempic has witnessed unprecedented success in mainland China … and with patent expiry so close, Chinese drugmakers are looking to capitalize (on) this segment as soon as possible,” said Karan Verma, a health care research and data analyst at information services provider Clarivate.

Front-runner Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering has already developed one treatment that it says has “similar clinical efficacy and safety” as Ozempic and applied for approval for sale in April. The company has not published efficacy data and did not respond to a request for information.

The company said in January that it expected approval in the second half of 2025, but it cautioned that it would not be able to commercialize the drug before Novo’s patent expires in 2026, unless a Chinese court makes a final ruling that the patent is invalid.

The Danish company’s semaglutide patent is expiring in China far ahead of its expiry in key markets such as Japan, Europe and the U.S. Analysts attribute variations in patent expiry timelines to term extensions Novo has won in specific regions.

Even more pressing for Novo is the China patent office’s 2022 ruling that the patent is invalid for reasons related to experimental data availability, which the company has challenged.

China’s top court said it was not able to say when verdicts are likely ready.

A Novo spokesperson said it “welcomes healthy competition” and was awaiting a court decision on its patent case. The spokesperson did not answer follow-up queries on the matter.

Other Chinese drugmakers who are running the final stages of clinical trials for Ozempic generics include United Laboratories, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, Huadong Medicine and a subsidiary of Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group.

CSPC said in May it expected approval for its semaglutide diabetes drug in 2026.

Brokerage Jefferies estimated in an October report that semaglutide drugs from United Laboratories will be launched for diabetes in 2025 and obesity in 2027. United Laboratories did not respond to a request for comment.

Impact on prices

The number of adults who are overweight or obese in China is projected to reach 540 million and 150 million, respectively, in 2030, up 2.8 and 7.5 times from 2000 levels, according to a 2020 study by Chinese public health researchers.

If shown to be as safe and effective as Novo’s, Chinese drugmakers’ products will increase competition and bring down prices, analysts say.

Goldman Sachs analysts estimated in an August report that generics could lead to a price reduction of around 25% for semaglutide in China. The weekly Ozempic injection costs around $100 for each 3mL dose through China’s public hospital network, Clarivate’s Verma said.

Novo acknowledges the intensifying competition.

“In 2026 and 2027 we might see a few more players showing up due to the clinical trials” in progress, Maziar Mike Doustdar, a Novo executive vice president, told investors in March, referring to the China market.

But he also questioned the capability of some of the players to provide meaningful volumes, adding, “We will watch it as we get closer.”

Novo also faces competition from internationally well-known firms, including Eli Lilly, whose diabetes drug Mounjaro received approval from China in May. HSBC analysts expect China’s approval this year or in the first half of 2025 for Lilly’s weight loss drug with the same active ingredient.

Eli Lilly did not reply to a request for a comment on Chinese approval of the drug, which in the U.S. is called Zepbound.

Supplies of both Wegovy and Zepbound remain constrained, but the companies have been increasing production.

Zuo Ya-Jun, general manager of weight loss drugmaker Shanghai Benemae Pharmaceutical, said a product being competitive would depend on distinguishing features such as efficacy, durability of the treatment and a company’s sales abilities.

“It will be a market with fierce competition, but who will be [the leader] is hard to say,” she said.
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South Africa has seen several waves of immigration from China, with early generations of migrants fleeing extreme poverty at home and newer arrivals seeking business opportunities. Kate Bartlett has the story about Chinese South Africans who have established businesses Johannesburg’s old and new Chinatowns.
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Washington — Former colleagues of exiled Uyghur journalist Kasim Kashgar have been imprisoned in China’s Xinjiang region, seemingly over their connection to the Washington-based reporter. 

Those convicted are Mirkamil Ahmed, Semet Ababekri, Abdukadir Rozi, Mehmut Abdukeyum and Akber Osman. Each has been sentenced to at least seven years in prison, Kashgar said. 

Kashgar, who reports for Voice of America, says he learned of the convictions from an acquaintance in May. 

At VOA, Kashgar regularly covers Uyghur human rights issues. He believes his former colleagues — who worked with him at the language school he founded in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi — were targeted due to their association with him. 

“Their ‘mistake’ was their past proximity to someone now affiliated with a U.S. news agency covering Uyghur-related news,” Kashgar said. 

It’s unclear when the convictions occurred, since the Chinese government rarely publicizes that kind of information. It’s also unclear what the exact charges are. 

Kashgar said he learned from sources familiar with the cases that all five were accused of having been recruited by Kashgar to become members of the World Uyghur Congress, or WUC. 

Headquartered in Munich, the WUC advocates for Uyghur human rights internationally. But Beijing views it as a separatist organization. 

See also: Far from Xinjiang, Uyghurs keep their culture alive

The Chinese government regularly uses bogus charges of separatism and terrorism as an excuse to target Uyghurs, according to human rights groups. 

Kashgar said his contact with the WUC is limited to interviews as part of his VOA coverage. 

In an emailed statement to VOA, the spokesperson at China’s Washington embassy said, “China is a country ruled by law” where all ethnic groups “enjoy equality.” 

“Xinjiang’s judicial organs pursue social fairness and justice, which are the values of the rule of law,” the spokesperson said. The email went on to repeat the common government narrative that Beijing’s policies in the region are for counterterrorism purposes. 

Some advocates say the recent convictions underscore the extent of arbitrary detentions in Xinjiang, which many Uyghurs prefer to call the Uyghur Region or East Turkestan. 

“It demonstrates that, first of all, this kind of arbitrary detention, and also retaliation by association, has not stopped at all, despite the fact that the government is claiming otherwise,” Zumretay Arkin, the WUC’s spokesperson and advocacy manager, told VOA. 

In the region, the Chinese government stands accused by foreign governments and human rights groups of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the majority-Muslim Uyghur ethnic group. Beijing has long denied any wrongdoing in the region. 

Kashgar fled Chinese surveillance and repression in his homeland in 2017 for the United States. He started work for VOA in 2019. 

The journalist says he faced Beijing-backed harassment over his work in the form of transnational repression. Earlier this year, he learned from sources that the Chinese government had officially labeled him a “key person involved in terrorism.” 

But verifying such information is difficult. Experts say Beijing intentionally makes it difficult to confirm such reports. 

See also: From fear to freedom: A Uyghur’s journey

The situation involving his former colleagues extends back to March 2021, when Kashgar received a phone call from a childhood friend in Xinjiang. 

After being jailed multiple times, the friend had been forced to become an informant for China’s Ministry of State Security intelligence agency, Kashgar said. 

Now, the intelligence agency wanted Kashgar to spy for them, the friend said. Kashgar declined. 

In the weeks that followed, Kashgar learned that five former employees had been disappeared by Chinese security officials. 

Human rights groups estimate that around 1 million to 2 million Uyghurs have been held in the region’s mass internment centers. 

Kashgar said he knows of at least seven other former employees arrested in Xinjiang, but it’s unclear whether any of them have been convicted. 

This kind of story is common for Xinjiang, according to Arkin. To retaliate against vocal Uyghurs in the diaspora, the Chinese government has a pattern of targeting their family, friends and colleagues who still live in the region. 

“This really has been, in my opinion, one of the most successful ways of silencing the diaspora,” Arkin said. “Because you’re facing this constant dilemma, because you’re putting the lives of your relatives, your family and friends at risk, you’re constantly wondering if your work is worth it.” 

Arkin said she has heard of other cases of Uyghurs in Xinjiang being questioned over alleged links to the WUC. “It’s used as a tool of fear — inside, but also outside,” she said. 

In the diaspora, it’s likely intended to make exiled Uyghurs too scared to be involved with groups like the WUC out of fear of potentially putting their loved ones in Xinjiang at risk, Arkin said. 

Learning of his former colleagues’ convictions has taken a toll, Kashgar said. 

“It was very difficult to go to sleep and concentrate, focus on anything. It still gives you a lot of stress. But I want to seek justice for them,” he said. “I don’t want to be feeling guilty. But at the same time, there’s some sort of that emotional side that hits me, because those former colleagues never, ever committed any sort of crime.” 

A 2022 report by the United Nations Human Rights Office determined that the extent of arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.
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Hong Kong — Hong Kong police arrested four people and detained five others Tuesday as authorities sought to stamp out commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in mainland China.

Police were out in force patrolling Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, where an annual candlelight vigil had been held until recent years.

As police patrolled the area, including the two closest subway stations, they did not hesitate to take away people who were publicly marking the anniversary.

Police late Tuesday said they made four arrests, including a 68-year-old woman who was chanting slogans, and suspected to have committed offenses “in connection with seditious intention,” which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail under a new domestic security law – known locally as Article 23. Videos from local media showed a woman shouting “The people will not forget.”

Three other people were arrested, including a 24-year-old man and a 69-year-old woman for allegedly attacking police officers and disorderly conduct, and a 23-year-old man on assault charges for allegedly attacking two security guards. Police told VOA the two men arrested were a Swiss and a Japanese national.

Five other people were taken in for questioning over suspicion of disrupting public peace, but have been released, police said.

Officers led away an elderly man who had held up two handwritten posters listing democracy movements in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan alongside a poem commemorating June 4. The police action came even though he folded his papers after being warned he would be arrested for “disorderly conduct,” according to a French news agency reporter who tweeted about the incident.

Police told VOA they could not immediately provide information about this case, but he was reportedly released later.

Separately, diplomats from Western countries were seen walking outside the park on Tuesday evening, followed by throngs of press, according to Hong Kong Free Press.

Ahead of the anniversary, police detained performance artist Sanmu Chen in Causeway Bay, the busy Hong Kong shopping district where the park is located.

Before officers approached him, Chen wrote the Chinese characters “8964,” which refer to the date of the crackdown, with his finger in the air. He also mimed the Chinese traditional tomb sweeping ritual of pouring wine onto the ground to mourn the dead, according to local media Hong Kong Free Press.

He was released the same night, Hong Kong police told VOA.

Local media reported several other people, including an activist who shouted, “People will not forget,” were also taken away, while people searched and questioned a woman whose phone flashlight was turned on.

In the past week, eight people were arrested for allegedly posting “seditious” messages, reports say.

For years, the vigil in Victoria Park drew thousands of participants. At its height, 500,000 people gathered in remembrance of the crackdown, making Hong Kong the only place in China where June 4 commemorations could be held. For a time, it was also the world’s largest commemorative Tiananmen Square event.

The vigils, however, disappeared after Beijing imposed its 2020 national security law on Hong Kong in response to widespread and sometimes violent 2019 protests over a later-rescinded extradition bill. The measure would have allowed authorities to send suspected financial criminals to the mainland for trial.

The 2020 law criminalizes secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism. While the government credits it with restoring order, critics say it has curtailed Hong Kong’s freedoms, including the right to hold events like the vigil, that last major one of which was held in 2019.

2024 law

Planners of past vigils tell VOA that authorities remain worried large-scale events could still be used as a platform for broader protest. The government appears to have confirmed those concerns with this year’s passage of Article 23, a domestic security measure that expands on the national security law, criminalizing and expanding penalties for offenses including sedition, secession and subversion.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said “different people may use different excuses to hide their intentions.”

“It’s important we all bear that in mind, to be on guard all the time against attempts to cause trouble to Hong Kong, particularly disturbing public peace,” he said.

One-time vigil organizer Richard Tsoi, a member of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said Article 23 makes even small commemorations riskier.

“Now with Article 23, the penalty is higher … so the risk is higher,” said Tsoi, who served eight months in prison after defying the government’s ban on holding the vigil in 2020. The group disbanded the following year.

Some people, however, are commemorating privately. One activist posted a picture online of a wooden cross, flowers and a card with the words “People Will Not Forget” positioned by what appears to be Victoria Harbor.

So far, no one has been arrested for posting images, but local media reported a former district councilor’s display of candles in his shop was removed after a visit by plainclothes police officers.

The Tiananmen Square crackdown occurred when government troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protesters on June 4, 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, died.

At the park, one elderly man said there was no need to commemorate June 4.

“It was a tragedy, but it’s over; just let it go. Now the mainland and Hong Kong are doing so well. I hope they don’t organize any more protests; it was terrible for Hong Kong’s economy,” said the man. He declined to reveal his name because he considers the topic sensitive. “Wherever you live, you hope it is peaceful and stable.”

Asked if he was worried about the loss of Hong Kong’s freedom of expression, he said, “Everyone’s definition of freedom is different. You think freedom is like this. I think freedom is like that…. I need stability so that the economy is good and people can make a living.”

Farther away, a young mother described fond memories of participating in vigils as a teenager.

“It was very peaceful. It was to let us remember what happened,” said April, using a pseudonym to protect her privacy.

She now feels “helpless” about what had become of her beloved Hong Kong and “confused” about the events of the 2019 protests: who was in the wrong — violent protesters or police — and whether foreign influence was involved.

“I try not to think about it,” she said. “I used to support fighting for justice, but now I think I should just shut my mouth.”

Silence and lack of commemorations could mean future generations won’t know about Tiananmen — or at least not as much, Tsoi said. Since the end of the vigils, no place, not even democratic Taiwan, has been able to replace Hong Kong’s role in commemorating the crackdown.

“If this continues, people will forget this incident, the related history and the truth, especially the new generation,” he said, adding that Hong Kong textbooks have heavily redacted accounts of that historic event, and books on the topic have been removed from libraries and most bookstore shelves.

“I think the 1989 movement and June 4th is a major incident in … China’s modern history, which still affects today. There are still many unanswered questions, such as why the government decided at the time to clear the square, and how many people died,” Tsoi said. “Such a major incident shouldn’t be forgotten; it should be examined.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday expressed support for anyone reflects on the events of that one day in June of 1989.

“As Beijing attempts to suppress the memory of June 4, the United States stands in solidarity with those who continue the struggle for human rights and individual freedom,” he said.

Staff at the U.S. consulate and European Union office in Hong Kong lined windowsills with candles, which were visible after dusk.
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washington — China said it opposes a deployment of nuclear weapons to South Korea as it would pose danger to regional countries. Beijing was reacting to a report suggesting the United States should take such a measure to enhance deterrence against threats from North Korea. 

“If the U.S. deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Asia-Pacific region, it will be a dangerous move that will seriously threaten the security of regional countries and undermine regional peace and stability,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington. 

“We will continue to handle Korean Peninsula affairs based on their merits and our own position,” he said in a statement sent to VOA on Monday. The embassy spokesperson described China’s position on the Korean Peninsula as ensuring peace and stability and advancing political settlement that suits the common interests of all parties. 

The remarks were made in response to a report released May 29 by U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling for a major boost to U.S. military buildup and readiness against countries such as North Korea and China.

In the report, “Peace Through Strength,” Wicker suggested the U.S. explore new options, such as a “nuclear sharing agreement in the Indo-Pacific and re-deployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula.”    

He said these would “bolster deterrence on the Korean peninsula” as North Korea “continues to build more nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States and our allies in the Indo-Pacific.” 

In response to Wicker’s report, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Friday that “the United States does not assess returning nuclear weapons to the Indo-Pacific as necessary at this time” and “has no plans to forward deploy nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula.” 

The spokesperson continued, “U.S. security commitments to allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region are steadfast and U.S. extended deterrence commitments to the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Australia remain ironclad.”  

In 1991, the U.S. withdrew from South Korea its nuclear weapons, which had been stationed there since the late 1950s. The U.S. has been providing extended deterrence commitment to South Korea and Japan, which means the U.S. military would use its full range of capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its allies.  

Washington and Seoul will hold their third Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting next week in Seoul to discuss ways to enhance extended deterrence, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday.   

The NCG was set up under the Washington Declaration announced in April last year when U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a bilateral summit in Washington.   

On Sunday, after the U.S., South Korean and Japanese defense chiefs met in Singapore, the three countries announced they will conduct their first trilateral, multi-domain exercises, dubbed Freedom Edge, this summer.   

Robert Peters, a research fellow for Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense at the Heritage Foundation, told VOA via email, “The United States should seriously consider redeploying nonstrategic nuclear weapons to [South] Korea” as they would help strengthen deterrence. 

Nonstrategic nuclear weapons refers to low-yield tactical nuclear weapons designed to be used on the battlefield. 

However, Thomas Countryman, who recently served as acting undersecretary of arms control and international security under the Biden administration, said “such a deployment would draw [South Korea’s] attention away from building conventional capabilities that are more essential to continued deterrence.” 

Out of 200 tactical nuclear weapons the U.S. has in its active inventory, 100 are located in Europe and the other 100 are stored as a strategic reserve in the U.S, according to Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation. 

“With the Russian aggression over Ukraine, it is hard to imagine the United States taking any significant number of weapons out of Europe,” said Bennett.   

“With China on the rise, the United States will be inclined to leave its strategic reserve in the United States and certainly not deploy it in South Korea where it could potentially be vulnerable to Chinese or North Korean interdiction,” he continued. 

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said, “The U.S. military opposes the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons or any nuclear weapons to [South] Korea, because they would be vulnerable to a North Korean attack.” 

Japan would not object to the U.S. deployment of nuclear weapons in South Korea “as long as they remain under U.S. control,” said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. “It is only when South Korea develops its own nuclear weapons, would it potentially kick off an arms race in the region.” 
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This week marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations in China, which ended in bloodshed. VOA was a major source of information and news at the time for the Chinese. VOA Mandarin’s Xiao Yu has the story, narrated by Elizabeth Lee. Videographer: Zhang Zhen, Ning Lu
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Taipei, Taiwan — Thirty-five years after the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre captured the attention of a shocked world, the children of two victims of China’s 1989 violent crackdown against democracy honor their parents’ legacies.

Zhang Hongyuan, 25, is currently in the Netherlands seeking political asylum. He fled there in April 2023, after authorities in Wuhan of China’s Hubei province, threatened to arrest him for his public-interest activism. His advocacy followed the footsteps of his father, Zhang Yi, who was arrested 35 years ago when Chinese authorities put an end to public democratic rallies in Tiananmen Square and in many cities on June 4, 1989. He was then jailed for two years.

Zhang Hongyuan had started a career as a field engineer at the Dapu Power Plant in Meizhou city in Guangdong province. But he found himself on a different path in 2020, when he helped his father spread the word in Wuhan about the outbreak of COVID-19.

Later that year, he worked as a translator for a documentary by dissident visual artist Ai Weiwei. In 2022, Zhang Hongyuan recorded video footage in China of public protests against strict pandemic-related mass civilian lockdowns. His involvement in the White Paper Movement, as the citizens’ public expressions against the lockdowns became known, and another dissident, Yang Min’s, act of seeking asylum abroad prompted him to flee China on short notice 15 months ago.

Grace Fang, now 23, immigrated to the U.S. at age eight. She did not learn until she turned 11 or 12 that her father, Zheng Fang, had his legs crushed by a Chinese military tank during the Tiananmen Square violence.

Grace Fang graduated in 2023 from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Last June, she helped host a San Francisco Bay area event remembering the crackdown.

The Chinese government refers to the events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989 as a “counterrevolutionary riot” and downplays its severity. In China, discussion of the event in media or textbooks of the event is largely forbidden. The authorities regularly harass those at home or overseas who seek to keep the memory of the events alive.

Zhang Hongyuan told VOA he was raised in China by his father and forced to mature early, especially after Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. Zhang Hongyuan said authorities began to tighten control over the dissidents of the “1989 generation,” which included his father, Zhang Yi.

Frequent police surveillance, house searches and detention had an effect on Zhang Yi, which in turn had an effect on his son.

“When I was a minor, other people’s fathers went to the police station to pick up their sons, but I was a son who went to pick up my father. I did this a lot,” Zhang Hongyuan said.

“It was precisely these things that prompted me to realize the inhuman side of totalitarian rule at a young age,” he said, adding that it gave him the courage to echo the boy on bike during the Tiananmen movement, whose words became famous, and say, “It’s my duty and I have to do something.”

Zhang Yi was in Wuhan in 1989 and was attending public rallies in support of students nationwide when he was arrested on June 4. Zhang Yi spent two years in prison, convicted of assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic during that mid-1989 period of democratic expression.

“There was a big black spot on my father’s back,’’ Zhang Hongyuan said. “He showed it to me when I was in junior high school and said it was caused by the beating by the guards, as well as the humid environment in the detention center. From that time on, I really began to understand June 4.”

About 15 years ago, Zheng Fang and his daughter, Grace Fang immigrated to the U.S. He is now the president of the China Democracy Education Foundation in San Francisco.

Zheng Fang said he is proud that all his three daughters, including Grace who studied American environmental politics and earned a college degree, have a clear understanding of the Chinese Communist government. He told VOA that while Grace Fang has grown up to be an American, she understands the June 4 massacre first-hand and how China’s repression had impacted the Chinese people including her family.

Grace Fang told VOA that she admires her father, who is a ‘’hero’’ for standing publicly with the democratic movement in China in June 1989. But as someone who has fewer ties with China now, she can only help translate for her father during talks and presentations at which he shares his experience in China opposing state intimidation.

She said that while she is angered by what happened to her father, she has hope for the Chinese to have a better future.

“Although this historical event [June 4] was very cruel and the government was wrong in many ways, and the human rights situation [in China] was definitely not good, I no longer have hatred, and I just feel sad [about the truth] because I still hope that the Chinese people can have a better future,” Grace Fang told VOA.

She said it is important that young Chinese are aware of recent history in China, especially about the Tiananmen Square period, because they have the right to know the truth about their country and government.  

With hope, she said, that young Chinese in the future should have the opportunity to participate in their country’s social and political affairs and promote a more open and free China.

Adrianna Zhang from VOA’s Mandarin Service contributed to this story.
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Taipei, Taiwan — Authorities in China and Hong Kong are tightening control over civil society as people in more than a dozen cities around the world commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on Tuesday.

Ahead of the anniversary, Hong Kong authorities arrested eight people over social media posts commemorating June Fourth, which the police claim were aimed at using “an upcoming sensitive date” to incite hatred against the Hong Kong government and contained seditious intentions.

Most prominent among those arrested is human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung, who has been detained since 2021 for organizing an annual Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, which has been banned since Beijing imposed the controversial National Security Law on the former British colony in 2020.

Other individuals arrested by Hong Kong police include Chow’s mother and uncle and former members of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance, which used to organize the annual vigil and in which Chow served as vice chairwoman before its dissolution.

In addition to the eight people arrested for social media posts commemorating June Fourth, Hong Kong police detained performance artist Sanmu Chen Monday in the busy shopping district Causeway Bay, which was near Victoria Park.

Local media reports said Chen pretended to drink in front of a police van and write or draw in the air. This is the second year that Chen was detained by police on the eve of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Instead of the now-prohibited Tiananmen vigil, several pro-Beijing community organizations are holding a “food carnival” from June 1 to June 5 at Victoria Park, a move that some activists characterized as ironic.

In China, authorities sentenced former Tiananmen Student leader Xu Guang to four years in jail on April 3 for demanding that the Chinese government acknowledge the massacre and for holding a sign calling for government compensation in front of a local police station in May 2022.

Apart from Xu’s jail sentences, some family members of Tiananmen victims or former Tiananmen student leaders have also been put under strict police surveillance ahead of Tuesday’s anniversary, according to Human Rights Watch.

Chinese authorities have also censored a wide range of words, phrases, and even emojis due to their connection to the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Chinese activist Li Ying, who became a prominent source of news during China’s “white paper movement” in 2022, disclosed that Chinese authorities have banned the use of the candle emoji in China, which was commonly used for posts related to the Tiananmen Massacre.

Some analysts say the increased crackdown on civil society initiated by Hong Kong and Chinese authorities ahead of the Tiananmen anniversary reflects their attempt to remove memories related to the tragic event.

“The Hong Kong government is sending a message that June Fourth is a clear national security red line for Hong Kong and they want to make sure there is no commemoration or no memory of June Fourth in public,” Maya Wang, the interim China director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA by phone.

While the two national security laws that the Hong Kong government has implemented since 2020 have essentially outlawed public commemoration of June Fourth, Wang said some people in the city are still using veiled references to commemorate the event.

“June Fourth continues to be a collective memory among people in Hong Kong and you do see some of them make veiled references to the date by wearing black or through other gestures,” she said, adding that the effect of the authorities’ attempts to remove memories associated with June Fourth remains unclear.

A Christian newspaper in Hong Kong that used to release information about the Tiananmen vigils published an almost blank front page on Sunday as their response to the upcoming anniversary. Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Stephen Chow called for forgiveness and vaguely referenced the Tiananmen anniversary in an article he published. 

Despite the lack of public commemoration in China and Hong Kong, several cities around the world, including Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, Boston, and Taipei, have each organized events to commemorate the event, which occurred when government troops fired on student-led pro-democracy protestors on June 4, causing what are thought to be thousands of deaths. 

Zhou Fengsuo, a former Tiananmen student leader, told VOA that the dozens of commemorative events abroad play an important role in pushing back against the Chinese government’s efforts to erase memories related to the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

“When the Chinese government tries to intensify crackdowns on the commemoration of June Fourth, more people in the diaspora community feel compelled to help organize or participate in commemorations of the tragic event around the world,” he said in a phone interview.

Zhou has attended more than 20 Tiananmen commemorative events around the world this year and he said many events are organized or attended by young people or new immigrants from China.

“I met a lot of Chinese people at the June Fourth Memorial Museum in New York, and they are all actively participating in this year’s commemorative events,” he said.

As people around the world take part in commemorations of the Tiananmen Massacre, some activists say they remain hopeful that this decades-long tradition will be passed down to the next generation.

“I was encouraged to see a lot of young people, including Japanese people, take part in the June Fourth commemoration in Tokyo,” said Patrick Poon, a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, adding that young people’s involvement in the event made him believe the tradition will be continued.

Through the efforts to organize commemorations of the Tiananmen Square Massacre around the world, Wang at Human Rights Watch said the Tiananmen anniversary is helping to strengthen linkages among different groups in the diaspora community that focus on pushing back against the Chinese government’s crackdown on civil society.

“Through these linkages, there is a growing solidarity of resistance on the state,” she told VOA. 

 
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Beijing — China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe looks set to begin its historic journey back to Earth from the moon’s far side after collecting samples that scientists expect will help answer key questions about the early evolution of the solar system.

Chang’e-6, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, was launched on May 3 from the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.

The fully robotic probe landed on Sunday in a previously unexplored location in a gigantic impact crater called the South-Pole Aitken Basin, on the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.

China’s previous Chang’e mission collected samples from the moon’s near side in December 2020, restarting global lunar material retrieval efforts after a gap of 44 years.

The uncrewed Luna 24 mission launched by the former Soviet Union in 1976 collected 170.1 grams of samples from Mare Crisium, or “Sea of Crises,” on the near side of the moon.

Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions, all crewed, collected 2,200 samples weighing a total of 382 kilograms, also from the side of the moon facing Earth.

James Carpenter, head of the European Space Agency’s lunar science office, said the samples collected by the Apollo missions from the moon’s near side suggested the South-Pole Aitken Basin on the far side was caused by an epoch of extremely heavy bombardment of the solar system, Earth and moon.

“This is a really core event in the history of the whole solar system, but there is some controversy about whether it happened or not,” he said.

“To understand that, you need to anchor those events, and that’s going to be done with samples from the lunar far side from the South-Pole Aitken Basin.”

Small window

After landing, Chang’e-6 had a 14-hour window to drill, excavate, and seal 2 kg of material, with the goal of being the first probe to bring back such samples from the moon’s far side.

This compares to the 21-hour window Chang’e-5 had in 2020. “Once it gets dark, once the sun goes over the horizon, the mission has to end, so there is a limited time window between landing, getting those samples, and getting off the surface again, so it’s quite an exciting mission because it has to be done quickly,” Carpenter said.

While China said it had improved the efficiency of its digging and drilling machines compared with 2020, the mission could still encounter snags at the sampling phase.

Chang’e-5 returned 1.73 kg of lunar samples, rather than the planned 2 kg, as the drill was only able to create a hole 1 meter deep, rather than 2 meters, after encountering impenetrable layers beneath the surface.

The Chang’e-6 samples will be transferred and sealed on a rocket booster atop the lander, which will launch back into space, dock with another spacecraft in lunar orbit and transfer the samples.

A landing in China’s Inner Mongolia is expected around June 25.

Throughout the probe’s journey, payloads from Italian, French, and Pakistani research institutes, as well as the European Space Agency, will collect data on questions pertaining to space and the moon, highlighting the growing international weight of China’s space program, which is competing with the United States to build a lunar outpost in the next decade.

Carpenter said there was “extremely strong” collaboration between European and Chinese scientists in analyzing the lunar samples brought back by Chang’e-5, and he hoped this would be repeated for Chang’e-6.
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washington — The White House sent an unofficial delegation to attend the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president on May 20. Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, was among the delegates. VOA spoke with Armitage about his trip to Taiwan, U.S. support for the self-governing island, China’s aggression in the region and its ties with Russia.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: During your visit to Taiwan, you met with the new president, Lai Ching-te, and other new government officials. What message did you bring to Taiwan? And what did you discuss there?

Richard Armitage, former U.S. deputy secretary of state: The obvious message we brought to Taiwan was a bipartisan support for Taiwan’s democracy. I had met Dr. Lai before. I had the opportunity to have dinner with him, discuss the situation in the region, and the pressures put forward by the mainland, and obviously also had lunch with [former President Tsai Ing-wen] where we could tell her how happy we were after her eight fantastic years of the presidency. And now she’s going to be free.

VOA: Three days after President Lai took office, China conducted the military drills encircling Taiwan and called them “a punishment for separatist acts.” How to interpret the military drills and China’s message?

Armitage: That type of exercise, punishment exercise, was expected. The inauguration speech of Lai was fantastic. And, in my view, Chinese probably understood one of the many things Dr. Lai said was China must quit intimidating Taiwan. And also, on the other hand, Lai said, we are open for dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and dignity, thereby putting Taiwan on the high road. And I think China was not expecting it, didn’t know quite how to respond. So, they did, as they usually do, by a heavy-handed bullying activity.

VOA: Given China’s growing military might and its proximity to Taiwan, what kind of position does it put the U.S. in in terms of defending Taiwan?

Armitage: Taiwan’s geographic position in the world is the definition of tyranny by proximity, and Taiwan has to live with this. But while China is busy bullying Taiwan, if you look around the world, more and more people are speaking up for Taiwan, even in the WHA [World Health Assembly]. Many people spoke up for Taiwan, I believe, more than ever before. China has not understood that the more China bullies Taiwan, the more international support comes to Taiwan.

VOA: Do you think Taiwan should upgrade its military assets? Or what kind of military assets do you think Taiwan should have to deter China’s aggression?

Armitage: First of all, Taiwan has to concentrate on what we’ve seen is effective in Ukraine – drones, things of that nature, sort of unconventional, asymmetrical warfare. Air defense, Patriot missiles, things of that nature. And hopefully, the monies that the U.S. Congress voted for Taiwan defense will be used wisely and well. But ultimately, Taiwan has to come up with a way to come up to 100% manning level for their soldiers. The report submitted to the LY [Legislative Yuan] by Taiwan this week shows Taiwan is at about 80% of their needs. So, I think, this means more and more women should come into the force. More and more Taiwan citizens have to be able to respect those who choose to serve for the defense of Taiwan.

VOA: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin recently visited China after he began a fifth term. How concerned are you about the deepening ties between Russia and China?

Armitage: I’m concerned. Because when I look at Russia and China, I also see North Korea and Iran. And facing those four in Asia is a new situation we haven’t had before. So, am I concerned? Yes. Am I overly concerned? No. My understanding is, Putin was not entirely pleased with what happened on his trip to Beijing. He didn’t get everything he wanted.

VOA: Do you hope that China can do more to actually help solve the conflict in the region?

Armitage: You’re talking about Ukraine? I certainly would like to see China live up to what should be her responsibility for an area of conflict that worries the whole world. But I don’t see China in a hurry to do it. China always says that “We always respect territorial integrity and sovereignty,” and here, Russia has violated the sovereignty of Ukraine, and China – silent.

VOA: The Philippines now is facing a more increasingly assertive China in its behavior and actions in the region. What do you make of China’s behaviors in the region?

Armitage: China, first of all, has always said, “No one’s going to have joint patrols to assist Philippines.” They were wrong. China has not clearly understood that in our mutual defense treaty between the United States and the Philippines, Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas reef, these are areas that fall under our responsibilities.

China has to be very careful. Look what’s happened in the last year: People who were not very interested historically, in security terms, in the Taiwan Strait have all of a sudden become very interested. Canadians, French, Germans, British and always the United States, we’re all patrolling around the area. It’s been brought about by China. It wasn’t brought about by the Philippines, wasn’t brought about by Taiwan. It wasn’t brought about by Japan. It’s because of the behavior of China.

VOA: Among all the areas of conflict, which area do you think poses the biggest threat to the U.S. leadership in the world?

Armitage: Probably the Russia attack on Ukraine, because we [the U.S.] are so invested in Ukraine. … But I think any foreign policy specialist in the U.S. would not try to rank things in order of importance. Our attention, our interests are global. And therefore, to put one situation above another is to invite problems in those areas that are not number one.

If you remember in 1950, our secretary of state famously said that Korea was outside the defense perimeter of the United States. And what happened? Several months later, North Korea invaded. So, I would say it’s bad business to try to put anything in an order.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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London’s Chinatown is at the beating heart of the capital’s entertainment district – with unique flavors that link back to Britain’s colonial history, as Henry Ridgwell reports
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Beijing — China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe successfully landed on the far side of the moon to collect samples, state news agency Xinhua reported Sunday, the latest leap for Beijing’s decades-old space program.

The Chang’e-6 set down in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, Xinhua said, citing the China National Space Administration.

It marks the first time that samples will be collected from the rarely explored area of the moon, according to the agency.

The Chang’e-6 is on a technically complex 53-day mission that began on May 3.

Now that the probe has landed, it will attempt to scoop up lunar soil and rocks and carry out experiments in the landing zone.

That process should be complete within two days, Xinhua said. The probe will use two methods of collection: a drill to collect samples under the surface and a robotic arm to grab specimens from the surface.

Then it must attempt an unprecedented launch from the side of the moon that always faces away from Earth.

Scientists say the moon’s dark side, so-called because it is invisible from Earth, not because it never catches the sun’s rays, holds great promise for research because its craters are less covered by ancient lava flows than the near side.

Material collected from the dark side may shed more light on how the moon formed in the first place.

Plans for China’s “space dream” have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.

Beijing has poured huge resources into its space program over the past decade, targeting a string of ambitious undertakings in an effort to close the gap with the two traditional space powers: the United States and Russia.

It has notched several notable achievements, including building a space station called Tiangong, or “heavenly palace.”

Beijing has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the moon, and China is only the third country to independently put humans in orbit.

But Washington has warned that China’s space program is being used to mask military objectives and an effort to establish dominance in space.

China aims to send a crewed mission to the moon by 2030 and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.

The United States is also planning to put astronauts back on the moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission. 
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washington — Chinese artists walk a tightrope when trying to create content acceptable to Beijing’s standards while attempting to seek success among Western audiences. More than one artist who has gained recognition in the West has been punished by Chinese censors, with Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye being the most recent case.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival featured Lou’s pseudodocumentary “An Unfinished Film” as an Official Selection, and it drew positive reviews. However, the film hardly has any chance to be publicly screened in China.

“An Unfinished Film” is about a film crew’s 2020 experience at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

The fictional plot follows the members of a film crew as they attempt to reshoot a movie, then are forced indoors as the city goes on lockdown.

During this time, the wife of an actor, a member of the film crew, was about to give birth. She tried to rush out of the hotel but was beaten by the security guard.

In the movie version, the wife of Jiang Cheng, the main character, was about to give birth. Desperate to be at the hospital with his wife, Jiang tried to break through the blockade but ended up in a huge scuffle with the security guards. Jiang was beaten up and forced to stay in his hotel room until the lockdown ended in Wuhan.

In the end, the actor, the director and other members of the fictional crew had to stay in the Wuhan hotel and could contact each other only by mobile phone.

The film included many real-life video clips that went viral during the lockdown, including a child crying and chasing his mother who was put on a bus to a makeshift hospital, and residents singing in a locked-down community in Wuhan at night.

Reaction to the film

The film stirred strong emotions among some viewers at the Cannes Film Festival.

After the film’s screening, someone in the audience shouted, “Lou Ye, you are the greatest director in China!”

Another person who watched the film posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo under the name Wu Ke Feng Gao, “In the second half, sobbing was heard everywhere in the theater. The audience in the back row said that everyone was crying for themselves. … To me, this is the greatest Chinese film in the past decade.”

But Zhao Liang, a former Chinese film critic living in the United States who requested to use a pseudonym to avoid retaliation from the Chinese government, had a different reaction to Lou’s film.

“This is a suicidal movie,” he told VOA.

“Lou Ye can’t [work in China anymore]; he has killed himself in front of the Chinese government,” Zhao added.

He said, “He filmed the pandemic, which is very sensitive to the Chinese government and is a subject that cannot be touched. The Chinese government has destroyed all the files related to the pandemic in the hospitals, as if COVID-19 never happened. All the files on the lockdown and all the records at the time, whether in the government, hospitals or neighborhood committees, have been destroyed.”

Lou Ye, the West and Chinese censors

Over the course of Lou’s more than 20-year career, Chinese officials have banned and censored much of his work. Only four of his twelve films have made it to big screens in China.

In 2000, his film “Suzhou River” won the Golden Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands. However, because Lou participated in the foreign film festival without official approval, the Chinese government banned the film in China and punished Lou with a two-year prohibition on filming.

In 2006, the Chinese government placed a five-year filming ban on Lou for entering the film “Summer Palace” in the Cannes Film Festival without approval.  The film was set during the taboo Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations and included explicit sexual content.

In 2019, Lou said in an interview about making the banned film, “A Cloud Made of Rain in the Wind,” “Directors should be able to make movies without being threatened by censorship and express themselves freely. This is a right granted by the Constitution. … The censorship system has made the Chinese domestic audience a second-tier audience, a second-rate audience, because they simply cannot see what they should see, what they have the right to see.”

The plight of Chinese artists

Kong Ming, a former Chinese art critic living in the United States who requested to use a pseudonym to avoid retaliation from the Chinese government, told VOA that in an already competitive industry, Chinese artists have very few options to exercise their creativity.

“Chinese artists actually have nowhere to escape,” Kong said. “Even if you give up the Chinese market, you will no longer have the soil for your creations.”

Other artists who have faced Chinese censors include internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his often provocative art. He experienced detention and violence at the hands of Chinese police when living in China.

In 2019, music by contemporary Chinese folk singer Li Zhi disappeared from all music streaming platforms in China. His personal Weibo and other social media accounts were also shut down.

An official reason was never given for the disappearance of Li’s music. 

Many of his works touched on the taboos of the Chinese government, including the suppression of the 1989 student movement at Tiananmen Square. During the COVID-19 White Paper Movement, he also posted photos of himself holding white paper.

In April, although Li toured major cities in Japan, attracting tens of thousands of Chinese fans, Kong said the tour in Japan was just a one-time phenomenon.

“China has tightened up its grip in all aspects. Li’s case has definitely alerted the government. In the future, any musician who wants to hold a concert abroad will need a permit,” said Kong.

It is tough for Chinese artists to find success both in China and the West, analysts said. One rare exception is Liu Cixin, the award-winning science fiction writer of The Three-Body Problem. The popularity of the trilogy has led to television adaptions in China and on Netflix about an alien race’s invasion.

“Some individuals may be able to break through the ban, but it is very rare. How many Chinese artists are there in New York? Whose career is actually growing? Almost none,” Zhao said.

In addition to the threat of censors in China, Chinese artists face challenges if they try to expand their careers overseas, Zhao said.

“First of all, the cultural gap is still severe,” he said. “Lou Ye can only shoot Chinese themes, which are also very limited. Overseas audiences care little about Chinese themes, and it is difficult to integrate. It is very difficult for Chinese artists to be truly recognized in the West.”

He said the creative soil overseas is extremely barren for individual Chinese artists, there is no support structure, and they lack funding.

“There are a few capable people, but they are all very depressed when they arrive in the United States. When they live in the U.S. they don’t interact with each other, and it’s impossible for them to come together,” he said.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report. 
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Bangkok — Thailand’s government appears set to complete a deal for a Chinese-built diesel-electric attack submarine — a one-off purchase first negotiated under its previous military government — but experts say at this point, motivation for the deal may more political than military.

Under Thailand’s previous government led by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha, the original deal to purchase three submarines was made in 2017.

But only one of the submarine deals materialized and faced many snags along the way. It was projected to cost Thailand about 13.5 billion baht — or $367 million — for China’s construction of the S26T Yuan-class submarine and was put on hold amid the outbreak of COVID-19.

Hesitant to resume the deal, Thailand’s Defense Ministry under a new civilian-led government in October 2023 said it would no longer acquire the submarine because of Beijing’s inability to integrate a German-made diesel engine, a result of EU sanctions on China.

Benjamin Zawacki, author of Thailand: Shifting Ground Between the U.S and Rising China, said the events unfolded during a time of political uncertainty in Thailand.

“There were legitimate concerns about the engines. But the timing of that controversy coincided with a lot of controversy about the then-military government, whether or not it should be spending so much money in the midst of COVID-19 and the midst of post-COVID-19 economic recovery,” he told VOA. “It was trying to realize this submarine deal didn’t place it in a very good light politically.”

With Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s September 2023 rise to power, the submarine deal looked dead in the water — until Thai Defense Minister Sutin Klungsang’s May 21 announcement that Thailand’s Royal Navy had dropped demands for the German hardware, opting instead from Chinese-made CHD620 diesel engine, bringing the submarine deal back to life.

Not all about defense

Chinese tourism is key to Thailand’s tourist economy. China was Thailand’s largest trading partner in 2023, when it exchanged an estimated $135 billion in revenue.

Following the 2014 military coup, the U.S., which had worked closely with Thailand in the past, quickly denounced the seizure of power, withdrawing millions in military aid to Bangkok.

Since then, Bangkok and Beijing have tightened security ties. Thailand purchased more arms equipment in terms of value from China than the U.S. between 2016 and 2022, according to a report published in the Lowy Institute.

But Zawacki says questions remain about the necessity of a Thai attack submarine.

“Thailand doesn’t need it, and China doesn’t need Thailand to have it,” he told VOA. “Speaking purely from a security standpoint, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense for either China or Thailand, especially given the political controversy it’s caused.”

But, Zawacki added, the deal is “emblematic of the [Sino-Thai] military-to-military relationship” that has evolved since the 2014 coup. He also believes Beijing has persisted in finalizing the deal, which has since been modified to accommodate trade requirements on Thai military hardware procurement announced under Srettha’s new government.

“It’s been brought back I think primarily because it’s important to the Chinese,” Zawacki said. “I’m sure they were persistent. It’s a deal they want to get done for their own reasons.”

Greg Raymond, a senior lecturer at the Strategic & Defence Studies Center at Australia National University, echoes that opinion, saying it seems like Chinese pressure pushed the deal over the line.

“I don’t think [this is] what the current Srettha government was looking for,” he said, adding that Srettha’s administration in October 2023 briefly discussed the possibility of converting the deal into a procurement of Chinese-made naval frigates.

“They were looking for that trade to frigates or some other alternative, [but] they wanted to stand their ground,” he said of the new administration.

“They’ve been rolled,” he added, alluding to China pushing through the deal. “I think that’s pretty significant that whatever pressure or leverage the Chinese have applied has been successful.”

VOA has contacted governments of Thailand and China seeking comment on the submarine deal.

Beijing’s push for greater power in Southeast Asia, including the submarine deal with Thailand and docking its warships in Cambodia, won’t go down well in Washington, Raymond added.

“This … is something which I’m not sure the Thais have thought through in terms of how that’s going to be read by the U.S.,” he said. “I think it’s an increasingly tenuous posture of hoping to somehow achieve a balance and equidistance between China and the U.S.”

Zawacki says Washington’s main concern will be about where the Chinese-made submarine will dock.

“Will it be at Satthip Heap [Thailand Naval Base in Chonburi] which is where U.S. assets are also docked? And would that pose a potential [for] espionage and information gathering? In terms of the proximity of having Chinese or Chinese-built vessel and U.S. vessels in the same in the same port, that’s been their primary concern.”

Unveiling the newly modified deal to acquire the submarine last week, Thai Defense Minister Sutin Klungsang asked opposition leaders to wait until further details of the transaction were locked in place before asking questions about it.

According to the Bangkok Post, Sutin also said he could not share precisely when the finalized deal would be ready for review by Cabinet officials, adding that a trade component of the deal was still being negotiated.  
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islamabad — The Taliban government Friday dismissed the findings of a Pakistan probe that attributed a recent fatal attack against Chinese workers in the country to militants operating from Afghanistan. 

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, told an Afghan television station that his country had nothing to do with the March 26 attack on Chinese nationals in northwestern Pakistan, insisting it was an internal issue for the neighboring country to address.  

“The report published by Pakistan is an attempt to damage the trust between Afghanistan and China. We have repeatedly denied this report as illogical,” Mujahid told TOLO TV in his audio remarks.  

The response came a day after a Pakistani delegation visited Kabul on Thursday and shared with Taliban counterparts the results of Islamabad’s investigation into the killings of five Chinese nationals, along with their local driver, in a suicide car bombing. The victims were working on a China-funded hydropower project in northwestern Pakistan.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson told a weekly news conference in Islamabad on Friday that its delegation also had requested assistance from Afghan authorities to apprehend the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on Chinese workers based on the “concrete evidence” Pakistan had shared with them.

“The Afghan side has committed to prevent the use of their soil for any terrorist activity, and they have agreed to examine the findings of the investigation and to work with Pakistan to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” Mumtaz Baloch said.  

Pakistani military and civilian officials maintain that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, a globally designated terrorist group also known as the Pakistani Taliban, orchestrated the attack on Chinese personnel from Afghan sanctuaries.  

The militant group has for years waged deadly attacks in Pakistan, targeting security forces and civilians. 

Officials in Islamabad maintain that fugitive TTP leaders and combatants relocated to sanctuaries in Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of the country nearly three years ago, and they have since intensified cross-border attacks with “greater operational freedom.”

The Taliban have consistently denied that foreign extremist groups have a presence in Afghanistan and are using their territory to threaten outside countries. Critics, however, have questioned those claims.

This month, a U.S. government quarterly report to Congress noted that the ruling Taliban continued to allow senior al-Qaida leaders, the TTP, and other insurgent groups to operate in Afghanistan.

A United Nations report published earlier this year said the Taliban continued to be “sympathetic” to the TTP and supplied it with weapons and equipment, and some Taliban members reportedly joined the TTP in conducting cross-border raids against Pakistan.

The Taliban government has not been formally recognized by the international community.

China has steadily improved relations with Afghanistan, though, since the fundamentalist Taliban regained power in Kabul in August 2021. Beijing was the first to appoint a new ambassador to Kabul and the first to officially accept a Taliban ambassador.
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washington — In China, the U.S. and lands in between, social media remain popular places for people to consume information, and they’re often a headache for platforms dealing with disinformation and fake news.

The short-video application Douyin, the Chinese version of parent company ByteDance’s TikTok, this week announced a new verification mechanism for suspected fake content.

In a statement this week, Douyin said it would target “staged videos” intended to mislead audiences and require creators to label such content as fictional or dramatized.

Douyin cited a case of a plastic surgeon in China’s Anhui province who staged a video to appear he saved a patient through emergency surgery, attracting a lot of attention.

TikTok, Douyin’s sister app outside China, says it, too, has stepped up efforts to moderate and control content that aims to deliberately mislead for political reasons and includes a somewhat surprising target: state media.

TikTok, despite being under a Chinese parent company, introduced measures announced on its U.S. website on May 23 that will restrict state media, including from China, from using the platform to spread disinformation and misinformation outside their own countries.

“These updates advance our commitment to building a safe and secure platform that remains free from outside manipulation and influence,” the company said in a statement.

TikTok says that in the first four months of 2024, it disrupted 15 influence operations and removed 3,001 associated accounts, “most of which involved attempts to influence political speech, including around elections.”

The TikTok statement cited efforts made on its platform to covertly influence an election in Indonesia and politics in Britain.

“Now we’re expanding our state-affiliated media policies to further address state-affiliated media accounts that attempt to reach communities outside their home country on current global events and affairs. When we identify these accounts, they will become ineligible for recommendation, which means their content won’t appear in the For You feed,” it said.

TikTok said state media also would not be allowed to advertise outside their countries.

It was not immediately clear if TikTok’s restrictions would apply to China’s state media in Taiwan. Beijing considers the self-governing island a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Taiwan, U.S. officials and analysts say Beijing, through harassment and intimidation, attempted to influence Taiwan’s elections in January, which saw the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate win an unprecedented third presidential term in a row.

While the TikTok announcement on its U.S. website didn’t specifically mention the U.S. presidential election, it highlighted “countering influence operations during a historic election year.” It says it removed in February 16 accounts from China with more than 110,000 followers that were promoting Chinese policies and culture in the U.S.

“We assess this network operated from China and targeted a U.S. audience,” it said. “The individuals behind this network created inauthentic accounts in order to artificially amplify positive narratives of China, including support for the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) policy decisions and strategic objectives, as well as general promotion of Chinese culture. This network utilized accounts impersonating high-profile U.S. creators and celebrities in an attempt to build an audience.”

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before Congress on March 12 that the United States “cannot rule out” that China could use TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Mike Gallagher, the former chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China, warned that TikTok has a “huge opportunity” to interfere with the 2024 U.S. election.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment Report states that China may attempt to influence the 2024 U.S. election to some extent “because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN in April that the U.S. has seen evidence of China’s attempts to influence and arguably interfere with the upcoming election.

Beijing repeatedly has denied interfering in foreign elections, including in the U.S. Lin Jian, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, repeated that in response to a question about Blinken’s allegation at a regular briefing on April 29.

“Non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs is a basic principle for China’s diplomacy. The U.S. presidential election is the U.S.’s internal affair. We have never had any interest and will not interfere in any way in the election,” he said, and then accused Blinken of making the allegation for political purposes.

Move called insufficient

Critics say this week’s TikTok announcement that it aims to combat election interference and disinformation is too little, too late.

“I don’t think the measures will be successful as long as TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, is de facto controlled by the Chinese government. I think TikTok’s parent could divest from control by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” Joshua Kurlantzick told VOA. He is a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and former policy adviser to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, told VOA that TikTok’s new moves are symbolic. “I have no reason to believe these measures will do anything but promote the CCP’s interests,” he said.

“TikTok could be the gateway for a foreign adversary to have unprecedented sensitive data,” Leamer said, adding that unless ByteDance divests TikTok, there is no way to protect the integrity of the platform.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to VOA’s request for comment.

TikTok’s stated crackdown on state media comes after it filed a lawsuit May 7 against the U.S. government to try to prevent its forced sale of U.S. assets.

U.S. President Joe Biden in April signed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok in the U.S. to retain access to the American market, due to concerns the company could share the private data of U.S. citizens with Chinese authorities.

If ByteDance refuses to divest TikTok in the U.S. by January 19, 2025, it would be banned, according to the law.

TikTok says the private data of its users is safe and secure, yet analysts note that Chinese law requires the company to cooperate with Chinese authorities, and that the data of users is vulnerable.

As of January 2024, TikTok had an estimated 148.9 million U.S. users, making it the largest market for the Chinese application. TikTok’s CEO testified to Congress in March 2023 that ByteDance retains in the PRC at least seven years’ worth of U.S. TikTok users’ data.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Lima’s Chinatown was founded by Chinese migrants who arrived in Peru as indentured laborers. Back then, it was a meeting place for fellow countrymen, but today, it’s a vibrant commercial hub intertwined with Peruvian society. Adriana Núñez Rabascall has the story from Lima.
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Washington — Pakistan’s space agency on Thursday launched its second satellite in a month from a launch site in China’s northwest Sichuan province.

According to Pakistan’s Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), PakSAT-MM1 is a high-power multimission satellite designed to provide a range of communication services.

“Based on advanced communication technologies, PakSAT-MM1 will play a pivotal role in the socio-economic uplift of the country,” SUPARCO said on its website, adding that the satellite is “the hallmark of technological cooperation between” China and Pakistan.

SUPARCO added, “It will prove to be a stepping stone in the transformation of the country into digital Pakistan.”

Chinese state news agency Xinhua said Thursday that the country successfully launched Pakistan’s multimission communications satellite.

“At 20:12 on May 30, my country [China] successfully launched Pakistan’s multi-mission communication satellite into space using the Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center,” Xinhua said. “The satellite smoothly entered its predetermined orbit, marking a complete success of the launch mission.”

According to Xinhua, the launch marks the 524th flight of the Long March series of carrier rockets.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif congratulated the nation on the launch of the satellite, according to a tweet by the Government of Pakistan.

“The satellite will play a key role in improving the communication system, enhancing e-commerce, economic activities, and e-governance,” Sharif said.

According to PTV, Pakistan’s state broadcaster, the satellite will provide top-tier internet services nationwide, enhancing TV broadcasts, cellular connectivity and broadband. Its services are set to launch in August.

Prior space collaboration

Beijing-Islamabad space cooperation dates to 1990 when a communication satellite developed by Pakistan was launched into space aboard a Chinese Long March 2E rocket.

This collaboration has since evolved, culminating in the recent launch of Pakistan’s first lunar satellite, ICUBE-Qamar (ICUBE-Q), on May 3, aboard China’s Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province.

The ICUBE-Q satellite, a joint project between Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology, SUPARCO, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, captured its first image of the moon on May 8, according to Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai.

Ge Ping, deputy director of the China National Space Administration’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, said that this ongoing cooperation enhances friendship between the two countries and fosters diverse aerospace collaboration.

“I believe that this cooperation is of great significance to promoting friendly relations between the two countries and enriching people’s understanding of the moon,” Ge said. “We welcome Pakistan’s participation in China’s lunar and deep space exploration missions, and we will conduct extensive exchanges and cooperation related to space technology.”

During the first satellite launch this month, Pakistan’s Sharif remarked in an official statement that the friendship between Pakistan and China has “gone beyond borders to reach space.”

He described the Pakistan-China friendship as “higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the oceans, and sweeter than honey,” emphasizing that it has now expanded to transcend the boundaries of space with this mission.

On its website, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Pakistan regards China as one of its closest friends and partners, while China considers Pakistan its “Iron Brother.”

Economically, China stands as Pakistan’s largest trading partner and a significant investor, particularly in the infrastructure and energy sectors, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

Pakistan, hosting a multibillion-dollar flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, maintains a close relationship with its neighbor China.

Pakistan shares a border with China’s northwest region of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where some Western parliaments and the U.S. government accuse Beijing of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against its Muslim Uyghur population. However, Beijing vehemently denies these accusations, and Pakistan supports Beijing’s policy in Xinjiang.

Notably, Pakistan delivered a statement on behalf of more than 70 countries at the U.N. General Assembly last October, expressing support for China’s actions in Xinjiang toward Uyghur Muslims.

BRI and beyond

Beijing views space cooperation as integral to its BRI, referring to these endeavors as the “Space Silk Road,” according to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

China’s Space Silk Road aims to connect China’s BRI partner countries through China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).

BDS serves as an alternative to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s GLONASS, and the European Galileo system. BDS offers China and its BRI partners global positioning, navigation and tracking capabilities for both civilian and military uses.

In 2018, Pakistan ended reliance on the GPS system and fully transitioned to China’s BDS, which covers the entire country.

According to the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, China has become Pakistan’s foremost arms supplier in value terms over the past decade, with Pakistan receiving nearly 40% of Beijing’s arms exports.

Additionally, China has supported Pakistan’s nuclear weaponization efforts, aiding in bomb designs and explosive component development, and enhancing nuclear delivery capabilities by developing and transferring solid-propellant missiles.
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