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washington — As Indonesia gears up to participate in U.S.-led joint military exercises this month, it agreed at a meeting this week to hold military training with China, a move analysts say points to Indonesia’s nonalignment stance regarding the U.S.-China rivalry.

The Indonesian military is preparing to host Super Garuda Shield exercises led by the U.S. with participation by dozens of countries, including Japan, Australia, South Korea, Germany, Singapore and Malaysia. The annual drills will be held in the Indonesian provinces of East Java, West Java and South Sumatra from August 26 to September 5.

In the meantime, senior Indonesian and Chinese officials agreed to hold joint military training and reaffirmed their commitment to boost regional security, among other things, at a meeting Tuesday in Jakarta, according to a statement by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry.

It was the first senior officials’ meeting of a joint foreign-defense ministerial dialogue that will be elevated to a ministerial-level meeting during a new Indonesian administration next year. President-elect Prabowo Subianto will begin his term in October.

The two countries agreed to launch a new dialogue when outgoing President Joko Widodo met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October in Beijing.

“If it takes place next year, the bilateral exercises with the Chinese will reflect Indonesia’s pursuit of showcasing its neutrality” based on “bebas and aktif,” or “free and active” foreign policy aimed at making it “difficult for any major power to pull Indonesia into its sphere of influence,” said Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow in the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute.

However, if the exercises with China focus on combat operations and interoperability rather than nontraditional security areas such as piracy and counterterrorism and are conducted in the contested South China Sea, it “will raise red flags for the U.S. and its allies,” Yaacob said.

“Indonesia under Prabowo will have to balance many factors when planning exercises with the Chinese, as potential repercussions could be high.” The U.S. and its allies, including South Korea, France and Japan, could reconsider a decision to supply the Indonesians with advanced weapons systems, he added.

Indonesia, like other Southeast Asian countries, has been conducting joint drills with both the U.S. and China.

Last year, China sent a naval destroyer and frigate to participate at the invitation of Jakarta in a multilateral naval exercise aimed at fostering cooperation on humanitarian operations and disaster management.

The U.S. Navy, which also participated, described the drills as allowing “exchanges that support multilateral cooperation.”

Indonesia’s defense cooperation with China is considered underdeveloped, mainly focusing on low-level exercises. But recently, Jakarta expressed its desire to hold more military exercises with China, in addition to ASEAN member states and the U.S.

In an interview with Nikkei Asia in July, Indonesian Army Chief of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak said the Indonesian army is preparing to conduct joint drills with China that could start next year.

“Indonesia, like most of its neighbors, both seeks pragmatic cooperation with and wants to hedge against the hegemonic ambitions of China,” said Gregory Poling, senior fellow and director of the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“That also explains why Jakarta would be open to low-level military exercises with China even as it prioritizes its much more robust military relationship with traditional partners like the United States, Japan and Australia.”

The U.S. Navy SEALs and the Indonesian navy’s Frogman Forces Command held a joint training exercise in July. The drills have been taking place annually since their bilateral defense talks in 2022.

Andreyka Natalegawa, an associate fellow for the Southeast Asia Program at CSIS, said, “Despite the apparent — and nascent — deepening of Indonesia-China defense ties, the United States remains the primary partner of choice in defense cooperation with Indonesia.”

He continued, “The depth, frequency and institutionalization of U.S. bilateral and multilateral exercises with Indonesia remains second to none, and it is highly unlikely that China will supplant the United States’ role as Indonesia’s primary defense partner of choice in the immediate future.”

At their first U.S.-Indonesian senior officials’ foreign policy and defense dialogue in October 2023 in Washington, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to support Indonesia’s defense forces as the country’s “largest military engagement partner.”
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washington — Turkish journalist Erdal Emre shared his impressions about a recent media tour of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China.

“Our #Xinjiang trip with journalist friends from 8 media outlets has concluded. It was a trip where we learned a lot. We will be writing about our impressions. We extend our sincere thanks to our Chinese colleagues for their hospitality,” Emre wrote on the social media platform X on Wednesday.

Emre was part of a group of 11 Turkish journalists who participated in the “Media Trip in Xinjiang: Always More to Discover,” a nine-day event co-sponsored by Guangming Online and the Xinjiang Cyberspace Affairs Commission.

The tour covered Urumqi, Ili, Aksu and Kashgar, cities in the north and south of Xinjiang, with the journalists closely monitored by Chinese authorities.

Guangming Online, the digital arm of the state-controlled Guangming Daily, operates under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. The Xinjiang Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a regional government department, is responsible for overseeing internet censorship and online content management in Xinjiang.

Image campaign

Guangming Daily reported that the initiative aimed to “vividly showcase a beautiful Xinjiang” marked by “unity, harmony, prosperity, progress, security and ecological well-being.”

Zhang Jun, director of the Xinjiang Cyberspace Affairs Commission, said in the news report that the goal was to counter criticism and promote a positive image of the region.

“We hope that everyone will come to understand Xinjiang through seeing it with their own eyes, tell the story of Xinjiang in different languages, and share a true Xinjiang with the world,” Zhang said in the report.

China’s efforts to host international journalists in Xinjiang are part of its response to allegations of human rights abuses. These allegations include mass detentions, which the U.S. has labeled as genocide and the U.N. as crimes against humanity. Reports indicate that Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims face forced indoctrination, abuse, labor and sterilization in these facilities.

This strategy aligns with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s directive from July 2022 to enhance external propaganda efforts. Xi stressed the importance of using various platforms to “tell the story of Xinjiang” and present the region in a favorable light, advocating a multifaceted approach to bolster China’s global influence and shape perceptions of Xinjiang.

According to Abdürreşit Celil Karluk, professor of international relations at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University and visiting fellow at the University of Sheffield’s School of East Asian Studies, China strategically spends money to try to influence Turkish public opinion through media channels.

The campaigns target a country that hosts one of the largest and most politically active Uyghur diasporas in the world. Rights groups estimate there are 50,000 to 75,000 Uyghurs living in Turkey.

“Media giants such as CRI Türk and CGNT Türk, which are directly linked to China, broadcast in Turkish 24 hours a day,” Karluk said. CRI Türk is owned by China Radio International, which is a state-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese government.

Diverging narratives

In a video posted Tuesday by the Chinese Embassy in Turkey, Tunç Akkoç, founder of digital media organization Harici, expressed surprise at what he perceived as a stark contrast between his experience in Xinjiang and the reports from Western media.

“It is totally a different impression and a different reality from what we hear, especially from some Western media,” Akkoç said.

Mustafa Birol Güger of the Cumhuriyet daily newspaper remarked that the smiling faces he observed at an Urumqi bazaar suggested to him that the populace was content.

“If you want to check the level of stress in a country, you should go to public places and look at the face of the people,” Güger said. “In Urumqi, in the grand bazaar today, everyone was smiling, so that means they are happy, and if they are happy, we are happy, too. What I see is completely different from what is being told in the media.”

Asli Atasoy, host of the CGTN Turkish channel’s program “Chasing the Dragon,” on Monday shared a blog post on Turkish news site T24 detailing her visit and an interview with Muhterem Sherif, the imam of the Noghay mosque in Urumqi. CGTN, or China Global Television Network, is a Chinese state-owned media outlet.

Sherif is quoted as saying that Uyghurs “are very satisfied” with the Chinese government’s religious policies.

Opinion shaping

Karluk, the international relations professor, said that with sponsored trips like this, China aims to persuade nationalist and conservative groups in Turkey, traditionally supportive of Uyghur rights, to change their stance.

“China is also attempting to influence more nationalist conservative groups in line with its own discourses by taking them to China as part of packaged programs, particularly given the growing anti-Westernism, especially anti-Americanism, in Türkiye most since 2016,” he said in an email.

Economic compromise

Yalkun Uluyol, a Uyghur rights advocate, views the Chinese sponsorship of Turkish journalists as part of China’s strategy to present a favorable narrative and obscure human rights abuses.

“Similar to previous efforts, China tries to whitewash ongoing abuses and gain international legitimacy,” Uluyol said.

Uluyol argues that Turkey’s concerns for Uyghurs are being overshadowed by economic interests, citing a $1 billion deal with China’s electric carmaker BYD and the resumption of direct flights between Istanbul and Urumqi after an eight-year hiatus as emerging evidence of Turkey’s shift from criticism to accommodation of China’s Uyghur policy.
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Hong Kong — Hong Kong on Thursday announced the birth of a set of giant panda twins, the first cubs to be born in the city. 

Ying Ying, who delivered the male and female cubs on the eve of her 19th birthday, has become the oldest giant panda to successfully give birth for the first time, the park housing the pandas in the Chinese city said. 

The cubs were born in the early hours of Thursday after a nearly five-month pregnancy. 

“The city’s beloved giant panda, Ying Ying, gave birth to one female and one male offspring at Ocean Park on 15 August 2024, just one day before her 19th birthday,” the city’s theme park said in a statement. 

Ying Ying and the twins’ father Le Le, were first gifted to Hong Kong by Beijing in 2007 and successfully mated in March at Ocean Park, the theme park that houses them. 

“This birth is a true rarity, especially considering Ying Ying is the oldest giant panda on record to have successfully given birth for the first time,” Ocean Park said in a statement. 

Hong Kong leader John Lee welcomed the birth saying “this year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which makes the birth of the first lovely Hong Kong-born pigeon pair of cubs … even more special.” 

The mother and her cubs will be monitored around the clock by the park’s veterinary teams and experts from the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, the government added. 

Giant pandas are notoriously reluctant to mate, which zoologists say contributes to the dwindling population of the species — with an estimated 1,800 of them left in the wild. 

Last month, Lee said that China will send another pair of giant pandas to Hong Kong to mark its 27th year under Chinese rule. 

They are expected to arrive next month.
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BANGKOK — China’s top diplomat on Wednesday visited Myanmar and met with the leader of its military government as growing instability from the neighboring country’s civil war causes concern in Beijing.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit came after Myanmar’s army has suffered unprecedented battlefield defeats from powerful ethnic militias, especially in the northeast along the border with China.

The visit also came a week after Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, head of Myanmar’s ruling military council, alleged that foreign countries were backing the militias with arms, technologies and other assistance. He did not name them but was understood to be referring to China, which has long had close relations with ethnic militias operating along the border.

Myanmar state television MRTV said Wang told Min Aung Hlaing that China is cooperating seriously for stability and peace in Myanmar, and that it opposes the attacks by ethnic militias on army-controlled areas in northern Shan State. It said Wang and top officials exchanged views on bilateral relations, stability of the border region and cooperation in eliminating cybercrime and other illegal activities.

Chinese state media cited Wang as saying China “opposes chaos and war in Myanmar, interference in Myanmar’s internal affairs by extra-territorial forces and any attempts to drive a wedge between China and Myanmar and smear China.” It said Wang also expressed hope that Myanmar “will effectively safeguard the safety of Chinese personnel and projects” there.

China’s government has maintained good working relations with Myanmar’s ruling military, which is shunned and sanctioned by many Western nations for seizing power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and for major human rights violations. The takeover led to the organization of armed resistance to military rule, which has grown increasingly strong.

China is Myanmar’s biggest trading partner and has invested billions of dollars in its mines, oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure. Along with Russia, it is a major arms supplier to Myanmar’s military.

But the army’s unexpected failure to contain the resistance from militias threatens the stability essential for protecting China’s interests.

Analysts who follow Myanmar believe that China’s relations with its ruling military, and Min Aung Hlaing in particular, are severely strained.

“There is a deep well of anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar, particularly in the military, and Min Aung Hlaing is known to harbor particularly strong anti-Chinese views.” Richard Horsey, senior adviser for Myanmar with the Crisis Group, told The Associated Press by email.

“I don’t think China really cares whether it is a military regime or some other type of government in Myanmar. The main issue with the regime, in Beijing’s view, is that it is headed by someone they distrust and dislike, and who they see as fundamentally incompetent,” Horsey said.

When Min Aung Hlaing’s army held the upper hand in the conflict against pro-democracy guerrillas and their allies among the ethnic armed organizations, Beijing appeared to see the balance of power ensured enough stability to safeguard its substantial strategic and economic interests in Myanmar, its southern neighbor.

But in October, a group of powerful militia groups calling themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance launched a joint offensive against the army in the northeast along the Chinese border. The Arakan Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army quickly captured large swaths of territory, including important border crossings with China and several major military bases.

Their victories inspired resistance forces opposed to military rule to expand their operations across the country.

Beijing brokered a cease-fire in January, but hostilities revived in June as the alliance claimed the army attacked it and pushed back, seizing more territory.

The crisis grew when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army recently seized Lashio, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of the Chinese border, which hosted a strategically important military regional headquarters.

Analysts such as Priscilla Clapp, a senior advisor at the United States Institute of Peace, believe that time favors the resistance forces and that Beijing will adjust its policies as necessary in its self-interest.

“China will continue its efforts to preserve its investments and strategic interests in Myanmar with whatever combination of forces emerges successful from this conflict,” said Clapp, who led the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar from 1999 through 2002. “But it is too early yet to say what this will look like, except that the military will no longer be in the lead.”
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BEIJING — China has uncovered widespread corruption in its funeral services industry, state media said on Wednesday, with offenses such as illegal fees and cemeteries committed by long-time managers and officials of funeral homes.

Just last week a Chinese company was caught up in a scandal over the illegal harvesting, theft and resale of thousands of corpses, some from funeral homes, after a report by state-backed outlet the Paper went viral on social media.

Investigations by disciplinary authorities across the provinces of Anhui, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Sichuan and Yunnan have led to numerous accusations of violations by employees of funeral parlors and similar bodies, the state-run China Daily said on Wednesday.

Dozens of cases have emerged since investigations started at the beginning of the year, it added, and many of those targeted have extensive industry experience.

China has waged an all-out war on corruption in many industries from the start of the year, as part of a rigid, sweeping campaign pursued by President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2012.

Graft campaigns in Anhui, Liaoning and Jilin exposed funeral parlors charging illegal fees, along with illegal construction and operation of cemeteries and staff corruption, said the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.

In the eastern province of Anhui, Communist Party investigators detained Zhang Duo, an employee of the Panji district funeral home in Huainan city, for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law,” the local government said.

The term is a euphemism that usually refers to graft cases.

Zhang could not immediately be reached for comment.

In the southwestern province of Sichuan, discipline officials in the city of Dazhou launched proceedings against 89 people, and detained six, the China Daily said.

Also being investigated is a manager surnamed Yang, working at two companies in the province’s Quxian county, with more than 30 years in the funeral business, the government said in a statement, but gave no details.

Authorities in northeastern Jilin have also stepped up efforts to combat misconduct and corruption in the industry, in response to complaints from the public, state media said.

Anti-graft watchdog the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has doubled down on a pledge to relentlessly carry out Xi’s orders to catch corrupt and disloyal officials.

Its website has repeatedly emphasized the importance of a strong stance against corruption, bribery and the core issues that cause the problems.
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LONDON — The Chinese government has resubmitted its plans to build a “super embassy” in London, a decision testing the new British government’s strategy for dealing with China after the victory of the Labour Party in the general election last month.

According to the new plan, the super embassy will be built on the former Royal Mint Court site near the Tower of London, with a total area of about 576,000 square meters (620,000 square feet) — 10 times the size of China’s existing embassy in London.

The project includes not only the embassy building but also 225 residences and a cultural exchange center. 

The proposal was rejected by the Tower Hamlets Council in 2022 and was set aside after China failed to appeal in time. 

Since China bought the land for roughly $327 million in 2018, the plan has faced ongoing opposition from members of parliament and local residents concerned about security, particularly as protests in the surrounding area could increase significantly.

A Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson told VOA the planning team is reviewing the latest application, and public consultation has begun, but a target committee date has not been scheduled.

Politicians and activists believe that China’s choice to resubmit its plan is a test of the bottom line of the new British government’s China policy. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith believes the Labour Party may not be as tough on China as the Conservatives.

“The Labour government has become ambivalent about China and has in no way seemed to be taking any interest in the threat that China is posing,” he told VOA in a phone interview.

With the Labour government coming to power in early July, the United Kingdom’s relationship with China is undergoing a process of re-examination. Foreign Minister David Lammy said the administration would conduct a comprehensive review of its relationship with China to ensure that it could cooperate with China in areas of common interest while addressing global threats.

George Robertson, the former NATO secretary-general and head of the British government’s strategic defense assessment, warned that China was one of the countries that posed a deadly threat to the U.K.

The “Strategic Defense Review,” expected to be published in the first half of 2025, will help define the government’s defense policy for the next decade. The re-application of China’s super embassy program will undoubtedly be a test in this review process and policy shift.

The Tower Hamlets Council is dominated by the Labour Party. According to The Daily Telegraph, representatives of the Chinese Embassy in the U.K. said in a document submitted to the district council that the 2022 refusal decision was baseless and urged officials to reconsider the plan.

“I have no doubt that this will be classified as a risk and be evaluated continuously by the Labour Party,” said Rex Lee, a media spokesman for ESEA4Labour. 

East and Southeast Asians for Labour was founded in 1999 with the mission of promoting the Labour Party’s values, civic conscience and duties, according to its website.

“The Labour Party has been clear in their support of Hong Kongers and Uyghurs and all others who try to hold the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] into account in human rights breaches. There is no space for CCP to maneuver under the Labour government,” he said.

Megan Khoo, policy adviser for Hong Kong Watch, told VOA that the proposal “should feature in the new government’s audit of U.K.-China relations, including how such an establishment would hold the potential to threaten the more than 190,000 Hong Kongers which now call Britain home. 

“This site could serve as a vessel for the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] increasing transnational repression against Hong Kongers and other Chinese dissident groups, and as such, has no place on U.K. soil. The new government must not allow itself to be toyed with and make it immediately clear that it will not allow the PRC to call the shots,” she said.

VOA requested comment from the Chinese Embassy but did not receive a response by the time of publication.  

The Royal Mint site has sparked many discussions about the preservation and safety of history, due to its historical value. 

“It’s a historic building, which would not lend itself to be an embassy,” said Smith, the former Conservative Party leader. “It would be the loss of a historic building under the ownership of China. It would become Chinese territory forever, and that is not to be allowed. Certainly not the CCP.”

In 2022, pro-democracy protesters were assaulted by Chinese diplomats outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester. Opponents of the new embassy site argue that this incident demonstrates China’s intention to use the location to suppress protests, as the site offers limited space for demonstrations.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Taipei, Taiwan — Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is in China for a 10-day visit that includes meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. Rabuka is the third South Pacific leader to visit China since early July as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive with leaders and governments in the region.

Analysts say Rabuka is likely to use his trip to promote his vision for regional order in the Pacific and focus on Fiji’s economic development. The trip is Rabuka’s first to China since he was elected in late 2022.

“I expect Rabuka to use his trip as an opportunity to promote his ‘Zone of Peace’ vision for Pacific foreign policy,” said Parker Novak, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and Indo-Pacific Security Initiative, adding that Rabuka may push Beijing to “be a friendly power” in the Pacific.

Other experts say Rabuka will also try to deepen economic ties with China, including restoring the bilateral tourism relationship.

“Rabuka does focus much more on the economic aspect of Fiji’s relationship with China, including the support for development and the infrastructure support,” Tess Newton Cain, an adjunct associate professor at Griffith Asia Institute in Australia, told VOA by phone.

In a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on August 12, Rabuka said he is looking to learn from China’s experience in poverty alleviation, describing Beijing’s achievement as an inspiration for countries in the Pacific and around the world.

Rabuka is also expected to seek support from Beijing to address Fiji’s development needs.

Following his meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s summit in San Francisco last November, Rabuka said Fiji might look to collaborate with China on modernizing port facilities and shipyards, which he said were the key focus of the island nation’s sustainable economic development.

Beijing may try to use the visit to shore up its security presence in the region, Novak told VOA.

“Beijing may try to entice Rabuka to increase security cooperation between China and Fiji, but I think Rabuka would be hesitant to do so,” he said in a phone interview.

Earlier this year, Fiji agreed to maintain a policing deal with China that has sparked concern on the island among some police and political leaders and from Australia. The deal, which was signed in 2011 when the country was still under military rule, allows for the exchange of intelligence, visits, training and the supply of police equipment.

Rabuka, however, has remained cautious about advancing Fiji’s security relationship with China since he took office. Despite agreeing to uphold Fiji’s policing cooperation agreement with China in March, his government removed Chinese police officers from the Fijian police force, reiterating his concern about Beijing’s growing security presence in the region.

During his visit to Australia last October, Rabuka said he was more comfortable “dealing with traditional friends” like Australia, which shares “the same brand of democracy” as Fiji.

Beijing will also seek to grow its regional influence through state visits by Pacific leaders, Novak adds.

“The recent trips to the PRC by Pacific leaders from the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and now Fiji show how Beijing continues to use high-level visits as a diplomatic tool to advance its interests in the region,” he told VOA, using the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Rabuka’s visit highlights the “close relations” between China and the South Pacific region.

“[Leaders] of the two countries will have in-depth exchanges of views on China-Fiji relations and important issues of mutual interest,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a statement released on August 9.

While Beijing looks to increase engagement with Pacific Island countries, Anne Marie Brady, a political science professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, told VOA that China is imposing more conditions on these relationships, such as accepting more military and intelligence links with Chinese government agencies.

China has been deepening security ties with South Pacific countries in recent years, signing several security-related agreements with the Solomon Islands in 2022 and providing policing assistance to Kiribati.

China has also supported some key infrastructure projects in several South Pacific countries, including the 10,000-seat sports stadium in the Solomon Islands, the presidential palace in Vanuatu, and an airstrip in Kiribati.

Novak said that while China has tried to reframe the nature of its development aid to the Pacific region and may be making small shifts towards grant-based aid, its approach remains largely the same.

“The vast majority of the PRC’s aid [to the Pacific region] continues to be provisioned through loans rather than grants, and I expect concerns about debt to continue among Pacific leaders,” he told VOA.

Beijing’s increasing presence in the security and development sector in the South Pacific has prompted democratic countries, including the United States, Australia, and Japan, to step up their engagement with regional countries as well, including unveiling a plan to open an undersea cable connectivity and resilience center and providing more support in areas such as climate change, economic development, and maritime security.

As geopolitical competition between large countries drives increased engagement with Pacific countries, Newton Cain said the time and energy required for Pacific Island countries to manage the increased tempo of visits and talks could lead to the de-prioritization of regional issues at the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum, which begins on August 26 in Tonga.
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Hong Kong — China’s agricultural sector must improve its capacity for disaster prevention and mitigation, Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said on Tuesday, according to the Xinhua news agency, also vowing more financial support to restore output after flooding.

Liu called for strengthening the monitoring of rainfall conditions to provide early warnings and enhancing defense capabilities against water and drought disasters in major water conservancy projects in China’s northeastern provinces.

His comments came as he was conducting an investigative trip in Liaoning and Jilin provinces in northeast China, Xinhua said.

Eight rivers in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and the regions of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, along with other areas, experienced floods above the warning level on Aug. 13, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing China’s Ministry of Water Resources.

Extreme rainfall in July drenched vast areas such as the Sichuan Basin, Yellow River, Huai River and parts of the North China Plain, breaking precipitation records at 33 weather stations in Henan, Hunan and Shandong provinces.

The severe rainfall and ensuing flooding led to a near doubling in economic losses from natural disasters in July from a year earlier, the government said on Aug. 9.

China suffered $10.1 billion in economic losses from natural disasters last month, with 88% of those losses caused by heavy rains and floods, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

It was the biggest amount of losses for the month of July since 2021, ministry data showed.

Natural disasters during the month affected almost 26.4 million people across China, with 328 either dead or missing. More than one million people were relocated, 12,000 houses collapsed and 157,000 more were damaged. Some 2.42 million hectares of crop area were also affected.
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beijing — Engineers sent China’s biggest-yet cargo drone on a test run over the weekend while a helicopter taxi took to the skies on a soon-to-open 100-km route to Shanghai, laying new milestones for the country’s expanding low-altitude economy.

Packing a payload capacity of 2 metric tons, the twin-engine aircraft took off on Sunday on an inaugural flight, state media said, citing developer Sichuan Tengden Sci-tech Innovation Co., for a trip of about 20 minutes in southwestern Sichuan province.

China’s civilian drone makers are testing larger payloads as the government pushes to build a low-altitude economy, with the country’s aviation regulator envisioning a $279-billion industry by 2030, for a four-fold expansion from 2023.

The Tengden-built drone, with a wingspan of 16.1 meters and a height of 4.6 meters, is slightly larger than the world’s most popular light aircraft, the four-seat Cessna 172.

The trial run followed the maiden flight in June of a cargo drone developed by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the leading aerospace enterprise.

The AVIC’s HH-100 has a payload capacity of 700 kilograms and a flight radius of 520 km. Next year, AVIC plans to test its biggest cargo drone, the TP2000, which can carry up to 2 tons of cargo and fly four times farther than the HH-100.

China has already begun commercial deliveries by drone.

In May, cargo drone firm Phoenix Wings, part of delivery giant SF Express, started delivering fresh fruit from the island province of Hainan to southern Guangdong, using Fengzhou-90 drones developed by SF, a unit of S.F. Holding 002352.SZ.

Cargo drones promise shorter delivery times and lower transport costs, Chinese industry insiders say, while widening deliveries to sites lacking conventional aviation facilities, such as rooftop spaces in heavily built-up cities.

They could also ferry people on taxi services.
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Beijing — China supports Iran in defending its “sovereignty, security and national dignity,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Iran’s acting foreign minister in a phone call Sunday, according to a statement by China’s foreign ministry. 

In the phone call, Wang repeated Beijing’s denunciation of the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, saying the attack violated Iran’s sovereignty and threatened regional stability. 

Iran and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the covert strike that killed Haniyeh. 

Israel has not claimed or denied responsibility for the killing, which has fueled concern that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was turning into a wider Middle East war. 

Iran has vowed to “harshly punish” Israel over the assassination. 

Wang told Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting foreign Minister, that the killing of Haniyeh had “directly undermined the Gaza cease-fire negotiation process and undermined regional peace and stability,” China’s foreign ministry said. 

“China supports Iran in defending its sovereignty, security and national dignity in accordance with the law, and in its efforts to maintain regional peace and stability, and stands ready to maintain close communication with Iran,” Wang was quoted as saying. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday nominated Abbas Araqchi as the country’s foreign minister. Araqchi had been Iran’s chief negotiator in nuclear talks from 2013 to 2021. 
…

BEIJING — Chinese authorities are chasing unpaid taxes from companies and individuals dating back decades, as the government moves to plug massive budget shortfalls and address a mounting debt crisis.

More than a dozen listed Chinese companies say they were slapped with millions of dollars in back taxes in a renewed effort to fix local finances that have been wrecked by a downturn in the property market that hit sales of land leases, a main source of revenues.

Policies issued after a recent planning meeting of top Communist Party officials called for expanding local tax resources and said localities should expand their “tax management authority and improve their debt management.”

Local government debt is estimated at up to $11 trillion, including what’s owed by local government financing entities that are “off balance sheet,” or not included in official estimates. More than 300 reforms the party has outlined include promises to better monitor and manage local debt, one of the biggest risks in China’s financial system.

That will be easier said than done, and experts question how thoroughly the party will follow through on its pledges to improve the tax regime and better balance control of government revenues.

“They are not grappling with existing local debt problems, nor the constraints on fiscal capacity,” said Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. “Changing central and local revenue sharing and expenditure responsibilities is notable but they have promised this before.”

The scramble to collect long overdue taxes shows the urgency of the problems.

Chinese food and beverage conglomerate VV Food & Beverage reported in June it was hit with an 85 million yuan ($12 million) bill for taxes dating back as far as 30 years ago. Zangge Mining, based in western China, said it got two bills totaling 668 million RMB ($92 million) for taxes dating to 20 years earlier.

Local governments have long been squeezed for cash since the central government controls most tax revenue, allotting a limited amount to local governments that pay about 80% of expenditures such as salaries, social services and investments in infrastructure like roads and schools.

Pressures have been building as the economy slowed and costs piled up from “zero-COVID” policies during the pandemic.

Economists have long warned the situation is unsustainable, saying China must beef up tax collection to balance budgets in the long run.

Under leader Xi Jinping, the government has cut personal income, corporate income, and value-added taxes to curry support, boost economic growth and encourage investment — often in ways that favored the rich, tax scholars say. According to most estimates, only about 5% of Chinese pay personal income taxes, far lower than in many other countries. Government statistics show it accounts for just under 9% of total tax revenues, and China has no comprehensive nationwide property tax.

Finance Minister Li Fo’an told the official Xinhua News Agency that the latest reforms will give local governments more resources and more power over tax collection, adjusting the share of taxes they keep.

“The central government doesn’t have a lot of responsibility for spending, so it doesn’t feel the pain of cutting taxes,” said Cui Wei, a professor of Chinese and international tax policy at the University of British Columbia.

The effectiveness of the reforms will depend on how they’re implemented, said Cui, who is skeptical that authorities will carry out a proposal to increase central government spending. That “will require increasing central government staffing, and that’s an ‘organizational’ matter, not a simple spending matter,” he said.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Cui said.

Sudden new tax bills have hit some businesses hard, further damaging already shaky business confidence. Ningbo Bohui Chemical Technology, in Zhejiang on China’s eastern coast, suspended most of its production after the local tax bureau demanded 500 million yuan ($69 million) in back taxes on certain chemicals. It is laying off staff and cutting pay to cope.

Experts say the arbitrary way taxes are collected, with periods of leniency followed by sudden crackdowns, is counterproductive, discouraging companies from investing or hiring precisely when they need to.

“When business owners are feeling insecure, how can there be more private investment growth in China?” said Chen Zhiwu, a finance professor at the University of Hong Kong’s business school. “An economic slowdown is inevitable.”

The State Taxation Administration has denied launching a nationwide crackdown, which might imply past enforcement was lax. Tax authorities have “always been strict about preventing and investigating illegal taxation and fee collection,” the administration said in a statement last month.

As local governments struggle to make ends meet, some are setting up joint operation centers run by local tax offices and police to chase back taxes. The AP found such centers have opened in at least 23 provinces since 2019.

Both individuals and companies are being targeted. Dozens of singers, actors, and internet celebrities were fined millions of dollars for avoiding taxes in the past few years, according to a review of government notices.

Internet livestreaming celebrity Huang Wei, better known by her pseudonym, Weiya, was fined 1.3 billion yuan ($210 million) for tax evasion in 2021. She apologized and escaped prosecution by paying up, but her social media accounts were suspended, crippling her business.

The hunt for revenue isn’t limited to taxes. In the past few years, local authorities have drawn criticism for slapping large fines on drivers and street vendors, similar to how cities like Chicago or San Francisco earn millions from parking tickets. Despite pledges by top leaders to eliminate fines as a form of revenue collection, the practice continues, with city residents complaining that Shanghai police use drones and traffic cameras to catch drivers using their mobile phones at red lights.

Outside experts and Chinese government advisers agree that structural imbalances between local and central governments must be addressed. But under Xi, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, decision-making has grown more opaque, keeping businesses and analysts guessing, while vested interests have pushed back against major changes.

“They have a hermetically sealed process that makes it difficult for people on the outside to know what is going on,” says Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Beijing has been reluctant to rescue struggling local governments, wary it might leave them dependent on bailouts. So, the central government has stepped in only in dire cases, otherwise leaving local governments to resolve debt issues on their own.

“In Chinese, we have a saying: You help people in desperate need, but you don’t help the poor,” said Tang Yao, an economist at Peking University. “You don’t want them to rely on soft money.”

Economists say intervention may be required this time around and that the central government has leeway to take on more debt, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of only around 25%. That’s much lower than many other major economies.

Accumulated total non-financial debt, meanwhile, is estimated at nearly triple the size of the economy, according to the National Institution for Finance and Development and still growing.

“This is a huge structural problem that needs a huge structural solution that is not forthcoming,” said Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. “There’s really no way around this. And it’s getting worse, not better.”
…

Balkhash, Kazakhstan — Seen from the sky, with its turquoise waters stretching out into the desert expanses in the shape of a crescent, you can see why they call Lake Balkhash the “pearl of Kazakhstan.”

But pollution, climate change and its overuse are threatening the existence of one of the most unique stretches of water in the world.

One side of the Balkhash — the biggest lake in Central Asia after the Caspian Sea — has salt water, but on the other it is fresh. In such a strange environment, rare species have abounded. Until now.

“All the miseries of the Balkhash are right under my eyes,” fisherman Alexei Grebennikov told AFP from the deck of his boat on the northern shores, which sometimes has salty water, sometimes fresh.

“There are fewer and fewer fish. It’s catastrophic; the lake is silting up,” warned the 50-year-old.

A dredger to clear the little harbor lay anchored, rusting and unused, off the industrial town of Balkhack, itself seemingly stuck in a Soviet time warp.

“We used to take tourists underwater fishing. Now the place has become a swamp,” said Grebennikov.

In town, scientist Olga Sharipova was studying the changes.

“The Balkhash is the country’s largest fishery. But the quantity of fish goes down when the water level drops, because the conditions for reproduction are disrupted,” she told AFP.

And its level is now only a meter from the critical threshold where it could tilt toward disaster.

There was an unexpected respite this spring when unprecedented floods allowed the Kazakh authorities to divert 3.3 million cubic meters (872 million gallons) of water to the Balkhash.

The Caspian also got a 6-billion-cubic-meter fill-up.

China ‘overusing’ water

But the few extra centimeters have not changed the long-term trend.

“The level of the Balkhash has been falling everywhere since 2019, mainly due to a decrease in the flow of the Ili River” from neighboring China, said Sharipova.

All the great lakes of Central Asia, also known as enclosed seas, share a similar worrying fate.

The Aral Sea has almost disappeared, and the situation is alarming for the Caspian Sea and Lake Issyk-Kul in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

Located on dry lands isolated from the ocean, they are particularly vulnerable to disturbances “exacerbated by global warming and human activities,” according to leading science journal Nature.

Rising temperatures accelerate evaporation, as water resources dwindle due to the melting of surrounding glaciers.

These issues are compounded by the economic importance of the Balkhash, which is on the path of a Chinese Belt and Road Initiative project, a massive infrastructure undertaking also known as the New Silk Road.

A 2021 study by Oxford University scientists published in the journal Water concluded the lake’s decline resulted from China’s overuse of the Ili River, which feeds it, for its agriculture, including cotton.

“If the hydro-climatic regime of the Ili for 2020-2060 remains unchanged compared to the past 50 years and agriculture continues to expand in China, future water supplies will become increasingly strained,” the study said.

Beijing is a key economic partner for Kazakhstan, but it is less keen to collaborate on water issues.

“The drafting and signing of an agreement with China on the sharing of water in transborder rivers is a key issue,” a spokesperson for the Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources told AFP.

“The main objective is to supply the volumes of water needed to preserve the Balkhash,” it said.

Heavy pollution

The water being syphoned away adds to “pollution from heavy metals, pesticides and other harmful substances,” authorities said, without citing culprits.

The town of Balkhash was founded around Kazakhstan’s largest copper producer, Kazakhmys.

Holiday makers bathing on Balkhash’s municipal beach have a view of the smoking chimneys of its metal plant.

Lung cancer rates here are almost 10 times the regional average, which is already among the highest in the country, health authorities said.

Despite being sanctioned for breaking environmental standards, Kazakhmys denies it is the main polluter of the lake and has vowed to reduce pollution by renewing its equipment.

“Kazakhmys is carrying out protective work to prevent environmental disasters in the Balkhash,” Sherkhan Rustemov, the company’s ecological engineer, told AFP.

In the meantime, the plant continues to discharge industrial waste into another huge body of water, right next to the lake.
…

Washington — Chinese drones were detected in Vietnam’s airspace twice recently, a response, experts say, to the joining of forces between Vietnam and the Philippines.

“The Chinese WZ-10 surveillance drone entered Vietnam’s airspace twice in close succession, in response to joint exercises with the Philippines,” Roni Sontani, founder of Indonesia-based Airspace Review said in a report Wednesday, the most recent drone flight.

Vu Duc Khanh, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who follows Vietnamese policies and its international relations, told VOA China always uses the tactic of “divide and rule.”

“Any cooperation is likely to affect China’s status as a regional power. Therefore, it will seek to disrupt it,” Vu said.

The drone incursions came within a week of the joint coast guard training exercises between Vietnam and the Philippines. The first occurred on August 2 and the second on Wednesday during the Philippines naval commander’s meeting with his counterpart in Hanoi.

In both cases, the drone, identified as a Wing Loong-10 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), took off from China’s Hainan Island and entered Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), flying along the coastline for approximately 800 kilometers  before turning back near Phan Rang province, the Belgium-based Army Recognition group said.

Data from Flightradar24 indicated that it was the same drone on both flights.

The Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to VOA’s inquiry for comments.

On Tuesday, when asked by Reuters about a Chinese unmanned military aircraft that was seen flying over Vietnam’s EEZ on August 2, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she didn’t have any information and referred Reuters to the competent authorities.

On Friday, the Philippines and Vietnamese coast guards conducted their first joint drills in Manila Bay, off the west coast of Luzon, leading into the South China Sea.

Ha Hoang Hop, president of VietKnow think tank in Hanoi, told VOA that the Friday drill is the first between the two Southeast Asian nations who have competing claims over some parts of the South China Sea. Both countries have also been in disputes with Beijing in the same contested waters.

Both countries are claimants to the Spratly group of islands and became the most vocal critics of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters, where Beijing has increasingly asserted its territorial claims.

“The drill presents their mutual support and their readiness [for] conducting talks and finding ways to further cooperate to help gain common interests in solving the South China Sea issues,” Ha told VOA by phone.

On Thursday, the Philippines completed two days of maritime exercises with the militaries of Australia, Canada, and the United States, a first involving the four countries, to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Vu says the warming relationship between the two countries is good for regional peace and security.

But he warned that Beijing could escalate tactics.

“No one is fooled by Beijing’s expansionist objectives. Today, it may be drones, but tomorrow, it may be the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that intervenes,” Vu added.

Last month (July) Vietnam filed a claim with the United Nations for an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the South China Sea, a month after the Philippines made a similar move in June.

China rejected the moves by both Hanoi and Manila, saying that such an act violated China’s sovereignty and maritime interests and would not help resolve disputes.
…

WUHAN, China — Liu Yi is among China’s 7 million ride-hailing drivers. A 36-year-old Wuhan resident, he started driving part-time this year when construction work slowed in the face of a nationwide glut of unsold apartments.

Now he predicts another crisis as he stands next to his car watching neighbors order driverless taxis.

“Everyone will go hungry,” he said of Wuhan drivers competing against robotaxis from Apollo Go, a subsidiary of technology giant Baidu 9888.HK.

Baidu and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined comment.

Ride-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first workers globally to face the threat of job loss from artificial intelligence as thousands of robotaxis hit Chinese streets, economists and industry experts said.

Self-driving technology remains experimental but China has moved aggressively to green-light trials compared with the U.S which is quick to launch investigations and suspend approvals after accidents.

At least 19 Chinese cities are running robotaxi and robobus tests, disclosure showed. Seven have approved tests without human-driver monitors by at least five industry leaders: Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX and SAIC Motor 600104.SS.

Apollo Go has said it plans to deploy 1,000 in Wuhan by year-end and operate in 100 cities by 2030.

Pony.ai, backed by Japan’s Toyota Motor 7203.T, operates 300 robotaxis and plans 1,000 more by 2026. Its vice president has said robotaxis could take five years to become sustainably profitable, at which point they will expand “exponentially.”

WeRide is known for autonomous taxis, vans, buses and street sweepers. AutoX, backed by e-commerce leader Alibaba Group 9988.HK, operates in cities including Beijing and Shanghai. SAIC has been operating robotaxis since the end of 2021.

“We’ve seen an acceleration in China. There’s certainly now a rapid pace of permits being issued,” said Boston Consulting Group managing director Augustin Wegscheider. “The U.S. has been a lot more gradual.”

Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Waymo is the only U.S. firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares. It has over 1,000 cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix but could grow to “thousands,” said a person with knowledge of its operations.

Cruise, backed by General Motors GM.N, restarted testing in April after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian last year.

Cruise said it operates in three cities with safety its core mission. Waymo did not respond to a request for comment.

“There’s a clear contrast between U.S. and China” with robotaxi developers facing far more scrutiny and higher hurdles in the U.S., said former Waymo CEO John Krafcik.

Robotaxis spark safety concerns in China, too, but fleets proliferate as authorities approve testing to support economic goals. Last year, President Xi Jinping called for “new productive forces,” setting off regional competition.

Beijing announced testing in limited areas in June and Guangzhou said this month it would open roads citywide to self-driving trials.

Some Chinese firms have sought to test autonomous cars in the U.S. but the White House is set to ban vehicles with China-developed systems, said people briefed on the matter.

Boston Consulting’s Wegscheider compared China’s push to develop autonomous vehicles to its support of electric vehicles.

“Once they commit,” he said, “they move pretty fast.”

‘Stupid radishes’

China has 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers versus 4.4 million two years ago, official data showed. With ride-hailing providing last-resort jobs during economic slowdown, the side effects of robotaxis could prompt the government to tap the brakes, economists said.

In July, discussion of job loss from robotaxis soared to the top of social media searches with hashtags including, “Are driverless cars stealing taxi drivers’ livelihoods?”

In Wuhan, Liu and other ride-hailing drivers call Apollo Go vehicles “stupid radishes” – a pun on the brand’s name in local dialect – saying they cause traffic jams.

Liu worries, too, about the impending introduction of Tesla’s TSLA.O “Full Self-Driving” system – which still requires human drivers – and the automaker’s robotaxi ambitions.

“I’m afraid that after the radishes come,” he said, “Tesla will come.”

Wuhan driver Wang Guoqiang, 63, sees a threat to workers who can least afford disruption.

“Ride-hailing is work for the lowest class,” he said, as he watched an Apollo Go vehicle park in front of his taxi. “If you kill off this industry, what is left for them to do?”

Baidu declined to comment on the drivers’ concerns and referred Reuters to comments in May by Chen Zhuo, Apollo Go’s general manager. Chen said the firm would become “the world’s first commercially profitable” autonomous-driving platform.

Apollo Go loses almost $11,000 a car annually in Wuhan, Haitong International Securities estimated. A lower-cost model could enable per-vehicle annual profit of nearly $16,000, the securities firm said. By contrast, a ride-hailing car earns about $15,000 total for the driver and platform.

‘Already at the forefront’

Automating jobs could benefit China in the long run given a shrinking population, economists said.

“In the short run, there must be a balance in speed between the creation of new jobs and the destruction of old jobs,” said Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics at Peking University. “We do not necessarily need to push at the fastest speed, as we are already at the forefront.”

Eastern Pioneer Driving School 603377.SS has more than halved its instructor number since 2019 to about 900. Instead, it has teachers at a Beijing control center remotely monitoring students in 610 cars equipped with computer instruction tools.

Computers score students on every wheel turn and brake tap, and virtual reality simulators coach them on navigating winding roads. Massive screens provide real-time analysis of driver tasks, such as one student’s 82% parallel-parking pass rate.

Zhang Yang, the school’s intelligent-training director, said the machines have done well.

“The efficiency, pass rate and safety awareness have greatly improved.”
…

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s ties to China will likely inform his work if elected. Where does he stand on key issues? And how does Beijing see him? Everyone has an opinion. VOA’s Anita Powell and Paris Huang report from Washington.
…

washington — Myanmar’s ruling generals are facing unprecedented challenges as armed resistance groups gain more control in the north and the economy stalls. Experts say the rapidly shifting situation is giving China more leverage over the nation’s ruling military junta.

Earlier this week, Myanmar’s junta confirmed its loss of control of a regional military base in the northern Shan State – a key area for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and border trade.

That setback was the latest in the northern part of the country where the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) says the Three Brotherhood Alliance, an ethnic group coalition, has been making steady advances since late last year.

Between October and December 2023, USIP says, rebels gained control of more than 7,700 square miles, an area including crucial border crossings and trade routes between China and Myanmar.

By June, the Three Brotherhood Alliance expanded its control to central Myanmar, including Lashio, Kyauk Mae and areas near Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

Professor Zachary Abuza of the National War College in Washington told VOA Burmese that the opposition forces’ capture of the strategic city of Lashio has “symbolic meaning.”

“It is on the highway between Mandalay and the Chinese border of Ruili. It’s a critically important town. It’s also the headquarters of the Northeastern Command,” Abuza said.

On Thursday, China dispatched its special envoy to Myanmar, Deng Xijun, and he met with Myanmar’s military leader, senior general Min Aung Hlaing.

According to the junta’s official statement, their discussions focused on election preparations and maintaining stability at the border and the rest of the country. It did not, however, mention China’s sponsored peace talks with the Three Brotherhood Alliance, initially scheduled for the end of July but reportedly boycotted by the regime. China has been pushing for the next round of talks to occur soon.

The junta’s struggles have led to an increasing reliance on China for support, experts say.

In April 2024, Min Aung Hlaing offered to restart the long-delayed Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State to appeal to Chinese interests.

The China-backed Myitsone Dam was put on hold in 2011 following protests over its possible environmental and social impact. The loss of the project was a big setback for Beijing; 90% of the electricity the project was expected to generate was supposed to go to China.

“Min Aung Hlaing’s recent messaging around the Myitsone Dam is quite instructive. He’s trying to use economic concessions to compel the Chinese side to give additional support to the Myanmar military strategically,” said Jason Tower of USIP, who has closely watched China-Myanmar relations.

China has also shown growing interest in engaging with former military elites including Thein Sein and Than Shwe, signaling Beijing’s possible concerns about Min Aung Hlaing’s leadership.

Former President Thein Sein visited Beijing in July, and the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar visited former military chief Than Shwe in April.

In a recent USIP analysis, Tower argued that “by inviting Thein Sein, Beijing sent a strong message that it hopes Myanmar will return to a pathway of reform like the military started on in 2008.”

Abuza agreed, and said he believes China is looking for elections in Myanmar as an “off-ramp.”

“I think the Chinese are looking for a way that Min Aung Hlaing and [Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defense] Soe Win are retired. A group of more pragmatic generals looks for elections with the opposition as a transitional process to end this civil war,” Abuza said. “I think the Chinese believe that the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.”
…

Taipei, Taiwan — China has been intensifying pressure on some prominent dissidents in recent weeks, as local prosecutors decide whether to impose jail sentences on human rights lawyer Lu Siwei, and police repeatedly threaten to arrest citizen journalist Zhang Zhan again.

Some human rights advocates say the renewed threats against Lu and Zhang are part of a broader campaign by the government to intensify crackdowns on activists and human rights lawyers.

“Beijing is trying to warn dissidents that if they try to defend the rule of law or freedom of expression, they could be arrested or imprisoned,” Bob Fu, founder of the Texas-based human rights organization ChinaAid, told VOA by phone.

Lu’s wife, Zhang Chunxiao, who now lives in the U.S., tells VOA that Chinese police in the southwestern province of Sichuan have imposed strict restrictions on her husband since he was released on bail in October, putting him under 24-hour surveillance and barring him from leaving the city of Chengdu without approval.

“The authorities have deployed eight to nine people to monitor him around the clock and he is followed by someone whether he is taking the metro or getting into a taxi,” she told VOA by phone.

Lu, a prominent human rights lawyer who has handled several high-profile cases, tried to flee China last year in July and reunite with his family in the United States by traveling through Southeast Asia last. Despite holding a valid U.S. visa and Chinese passport, he was arrested and detained by Laotian police and later deported back to China. 

Zhang said the constant surveillance has made Lu feel isolated and experience serious mood swings.

“Almost everyone around him, including his friends and family members, has cut off contact with him so he is in a very bad mental state,” Zhang added.

In addition to surveillance and restrictions on his movement, the police told Lu last month that Chengdu prosecutors were reviewing his case and would determine whether to charge him with a crime or not later.

While Zhang said she hopes there is a slim chance authorities would decide not to charge her husband with any crime and let him regain his basic rights and freedom, some analysts say there is a high probability that Lu could be found guilty and given a jail sentence.

“Since the conviction rate in China is more than 99%, I think Lu will likely be prosecuted for some crime,” Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House, told VOA by phone.

Fu in Texas said Lu’s experience is a typical case of China’s transnational repression, and that Beijing is preparing to prosecute him.

“His case shows that under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rule, even a peaceful human rights lawyer would be arrested in a foreign country for trying to reunite with his family in the United States,” he told VOA.  

In a written response, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing strictly abides by international law and fully respects the law enforcement sovereignty of other countries.

“There is no transnational repression,” Liu Pengyu, the embassy’s spokesperson, told VOA.

Forced family separation

While Lu faces the looming threat of prosecution in China, his family has also been forcibly separated since his wife and children moved to the U.S. in January 2022. Zhang said Lu’s detention and deportation back to China have pushed her to learn how to advocate for him, which is something that she wasn’t used to.

“I used to be a very quiet person living a simple life, but since his arrest last year, I had no choice but to start advocating for him,” she told VOA, adding that she has been doing it out of her instinct as a wife despite the work being difficult for her.

“My child is still young and my husband also needs my emotional support so I need to become stronger,” Zhang said.

Fu from ChinaAid said Zhang’s experience reflects a common situation that the family of other Chinese dissidents have to face.

“The pain that such forced separation brings to Chinese dissidents’ families is indescribable and it is a tragedy created by the Chinese government,” he told VOA.

Life-long threats from the Chinese government

While Lu awaits his fate, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has been receiving repeated threats of rearrest by the police since she was released from prison in May.

Zhang, who was sentenced to four years for covering the initial lockdown in Wuhan during the COVID-19 pandemic, shared in a post on the messaging app WeChat on June 9 that police in Shanghai warned her that if she again crosses certain “red lines,” she would be jailed again.

In another video she uploaded onto YouTube in July, Zhang said authorities had confiscated her passport, and that she remains aware of possibly being followed. 

Despite the recurring threats she faces, Zhang continues to advocate for the release of other Chinese dissidents who have been taken away by police in recent weeks. 

Wang at Freedom House said that as Zhang continues to advocate for freedom and the rule of law, she will likely keep facing harassment and intimidation from the police.

“Surveillance and threats of reimprisonment will always accompany her, likely for the rest of her life,” she told VOA. “These cases show that the cost of dissenting is not limited to the formal time these dissidents serve in prison.”

Wang adds that it also shows how threats to dissidents under Xi Jinping are increasing and are often “all-encompassing.” 
…

BEIJING — At least two people have died from heat-stroke in one Chinese city, and many more have fallen ill, as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius for the eighth day on the eastern seaboard.

Over the next three days, most areas south of the Yangtze River, which empties into the sea in Shanghai, are expected to bake in 37C-39C heat, with temperatures in parts of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces exceeding 40C, forecasters said Thursday.

After sweltering in its hottest July in observed modern history, China has been hit by extreme heat, particularly in the east and south of the country. Zhejiang’s provincial capital Hangzhou recorded a 41.9C historical high on August 3.

Emergency services in Shenzhen, a city of 18 million people in Guangdong province, said it had made 88 emergency house calls due to heat-related illnesses from August 1-6.

Two men, one in his 50s and the other in his 60s, later died, according to a statement released late Wednesday.

China does not give a tally of heat-related deaths, although domestic media occasionally report fatalities, citing local authorities.

In 2022, China was hit by the worst heat waves since 1961, with many parts of the country enduring a 79-day hot spell from June 13 to August 30. No official death tally has been disclosed.

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said 554 people died or went missing that year “due to natural disasters.”

Heat-related deaths can be hard to categorize, as a fatality owing to a heat-stroke could be classified differently if the cause of death was a heart attack or organ failure.

In a 2023 report published in the medical journal The Lancet, heat wave-related mortality in China was estimated at 50,900 deaths in 2022, doubling from 2021.  
…

washington — China has lost a partner with the resignation under pressure of Bangladesh’s long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who during a visit to Beijing last month signed 28 bilateral agreements and agreed to raise ties between the countries to a “comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.”

Beijing’s official response to her flight into exile was muted, with the Xinhua News Agency quoting the Foreign Ministry describing Bangladesh as a “friendly neighbor” and expressing its hopes that “social stability would be restored soon.”

But on Chinese social media platforms, users have openly praised the courage of the student protesters who drove Hasina out of office, braving a harsh military crackdown that saw dozens if not hundreds of students killed.

“At a moment when democracy and equality were faced with sustained and serious setbacks, the heroic people of Bangladesh used their lives and blood to turn the tide around. The world’s civilizations may be diverse, but they only have one path forward. Best wishes to the Bengalis,” one Weibo user wrote.

Some internet users lamented that Chinese are less willing than their Bangladeshi counterparts to resist government policies.

“They’re much braver compared to the people in China,” a Weibo user wrote.

“Agreed, some Chinese people aren’t even brave enough to leave their communities because of the pandemic,” another replied, a reference to the tight restrictions the Chinese government put in place during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Hours after Hasina fled, Bangladeshi Army Chief of Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman addressed the people of Bangladesh, promising that the military would investigate the violent crackdown on the student protesters.

“Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible,” he said, adding that he had ordered the army and police to not open fire on crowds under any circumstances.

The military’s newfound restraint elicited praise from some Chinese social media users.

“I salute the brave Bangladeshi people, I salute the military that stands together with the people. Rights are acquired through fighting. Best wishes to the Bangladeshi people,” a comment read.

Others argued that the past month’s protests were the result of disorder brought upon the country by Western ideology, and that only an ideology such as that of the Chinese Communist Party could bring stability to Bangladesh.

“A handful of ambitious people, plus a small group of mindless fanatics, has shaped and destroyed the fate of everyone,” wrote one Weibo user. “The only way to avoid this result is through iron-fist rule by a party representative of the people. Democracy and freedom accelerate a country’s self-destruction. They are the worst political system.”

Other users applied the government’s own talking points to counter that argument.

“Democracy and freedom are written into socialist values. Who do you think you are, daring to oppose socialist values?” one comment read.

Hasina was Bangladesh’s longest-serving female head of government. She was re-elected for a fourth consecutive term in January elections boycotted by her main political rival. Thousands of opposition members were arrested ahead of the elections. The United States and Britain condemned the election results as untrustworthy.

Although what comes next remains to be seen, China will be watching closely given the amount of money and energy it has already invested in the relationship.

In the July communique announcing the two sides’ upgrade to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, the two countries announced plans to increase defense exchanges and allow for an expanded Chinese role in Bangladeshi infrastructure and economic development.

In the security domain, Bangladesh has been a steady consumer of Chinese weapons. From 2009, when Hasina took power, to 2023, Bangladesh received 12% of Chinese total arms exports, a quantity second only to Pakistan, according to the SIPRI Arms Transfer database.

The two sides also partook in their first military exercise in early May of this year.

Bangladesh joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2016 to receive Chinese financial assistance on various infrastructure projects. So far, China has assisted in the construction of important roads and railways, expansion of the power and communications grids, modernization of seaports and development of a surface water treatment plant.

Katherine Michaelson contributed to this report.
…

washington — Tahir Imin, a 42-year-old U.S.-based Uyghur activist and former political prisoner from China, tells VOA that he recently learned that six of his former business associates in Xinjiang were sentenced for allegedly attempting to split the country.

“I’ve learned from two sources that the sentences, handed down in early 2024 by the Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court, were linked to their association with me,” Imin told VOA. “One received 15 years, while the others got 12.”

Information in Xinjiang is tightly controlled, making it extremely difficult to get details about court proceedings. Imin — the founder of the Washington-based Uyghur Times and a member of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project — said his sources were unable to share documents for fear of retaliation from the Chinese government. Among those charged, he added, was the nephew of a top party official in Xinjiang.

The Urumqi Intermediate People’s Court is in the capital of Xinjiang, which is home to nearly 12 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs. The U.S. and other countries have accused China of genocide in Xinjiang, where more than 1 million Uyghurs are believed to be detained in facilities that Beijing describes as vocational training centers.

China says the measures are necessary to combat extremism, terrorism and separatism. Some people have been detained for practicing their religion or for their contacts with overseas individuals who are speaking out about China’s policies in Xinjiang.

When reached for comment on the case, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA he had not heard of the cases mentioned by Imin.

“China is a law-based country where laws must be observed and those who violate the law must be held accountable,” Liu said in an email to VOA. “If the sentencing is linked to accusations of ‘attempting to split the country,’ please refer to Article 103 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China.”

Article 103 of the Chinese Criminal Law states that people who “organize, plot or carry out the scheme of splitting the State or undermining national unity” face life imprisonment or at least 10 years.

The sentences of 12 to 15 years for Imin’s former associates suggest they might have been charged under this article.

Not the first time

Imin believes the news about his former associates is part of China’s broader strategy of transnational repression against activists like himself.

It is not the first time this has happened to him, he said.

“Previously, I discovered that 28 of my family members were sentenced to prison simply because of their relationship to me,” he said. “I am deeply concerned about my daughter, who was forced to denounce me, and my estranged wife, who was forced to divorce me.”

Imin told VOA that he has not heard from his wife or daughter in years and has no way of knowing whether they are alive or living freely.

“That leaves me with a constant sense of guilt and sorrow,” he said.

Imin and the six sentenced business associates — Ismail Kerim, Elqem Ilham, Dawut Osman, Yashiq Ahmed, Nurmemet Imin and Rashidin Gheyret — founded Xinjiang Ottuz Oghul Import and Export Trading Co., Ltd. in 2014.

Imin left China in March 2017, first relocating to Israel before settling in Washington. After moving to the U.S., he lost touch with his former associates and began speaking out against alleged abuses in Xinjiang. As a result, his associates severed contact with him, leaving him unable to track the fate of the company they once shared.

VOA was able to find details about his import-export firm on Chinese company search websites. According to Alibaba’s 1688 business-to-business website, the company and its associates registered with the Urumqi Municipal Administration for Market Regulation on May 14, 2014, with Tahir Imin listed as the representative and chairman and the other sentenced individuals in administrative roles.

Imin says his former associates all had separate businesses, with their joint company serving as a collaborative venture.

“We were all well-educated and focused on business and social improvement,” Imin said. “Our company’s motto was development, cooperation and social responsibility.”

Family ties

Ilham, one of the former business associates who was sentenced, is a nephew of Kaiser Abdukerim, the current vice chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, according to Imin.

VOA couldn’t independently verify the connection between Ilham and Abdukerim. Despite multiple calls to a number listed on the Xinjiang government website, the calls went unanswered.

Abdukerim has long been a vocal supporter of the Chinese government’s policies in Xinjiang. At the United Nations in 2018, as president of Xinjiang Medical University, he defended the government’s policies, calling them social progress even as allegations of mass detentions and human rights abuses were growing.

In March 2023, as vice chairman of Xinjiang, Abdukerim claimed on CGTN that international criticism of Xinjiang was an attempt to interfere in China’s internal affairs.

Restricted access

According to information collected by the Xinjiang Victims Database, which documents individuals affected by China’s policies in Xinjiang, all of Imin’s former colleagues were arrested in July 2021 on charges of problematic association. They later attended a hearing in March of 2023. Imin’s update about their sentencing is the latest on their status.

According to Gene Bunin, curator of the Xinjiang Victims Database, access to court verdicts and legal documents is highly restricted with the government now requiring users who want to access them to use Chinese platforms such as WeChat or AliPay.

“The other reason is that, even when accessible, they [Chinese authorities] generally did not post any of the sensitive cases, which is the vast majority of criminal cases for Xinjiang,” Bunin told VOA.

He said that in a study he carried out in 2018, only 7,000 of 70,000 criminal cases in Xinjiang had verdicts posted.

“This rate, of around 10%, was by far the lowest in the country, as for most provinces/regions at least 60-70% of the verdicts were posted,” said Bunin. “Of the 7,000 visible, almost all were for standard crimes that would be recognized anywhere in the world (drunk driving, theft, robbery, rape, murder, etc.), with essentially no political/religious cases.”

According to a Human Rights Watch report released in 2022 that was based on Xinjiang government data, more than half a million people had been prosecuted since 2017.
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NEW YORK — A Chinese American scholar was convicted Tuesday of U.S. charges of using his reputation as a pro-democracy activist to gather information on dissidents and feed it to his homeland’s government.

A federal jury in New York delivered the verdict in the case of Shujun Wang, who helped found a pro-democracy group in the city.

Prosecutors said that at the behest of China’s main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, Wang lived a double life for over a decade.

“The defendant pretended to be opposed to the Chinese government so that he could get close to people who were actually opposed to the Chinese government,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Sise said in an opening statement last month. “And then, the defendant betrayed those people, people who trusted him, by reporting information on them to China.”

Wang was convicted of charges that include conspiring to act as a foreign agent without notifying the attorney general. He had pleaded not guilty.

A message seeking comment was sent to Wang’s attorneys.

Wang came to New York in 1994 to teach after doing so at a Chinese university. He later became a U.S. citizen.

He helped found the Queens-based Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation, named for two leaders of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1980s.

According to prosecutors, Wang composed emails — styled as “diaries” — that recounted conversations, meetings and plans of various critics of the Chinese government.

One message was about events commemorating the 1989 protests and bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, prosecutors said. Other emails talked about people planning demonstrations during various visits that Chinese President Xi Jinping made to the U.S.

Instead of sending the emails and creating a digital trail, Wang saved them as drafts that Chinese intelligence officers could read by logging in with a shared password, prosecutors said.

In other, encrypted messages, Wang relayed details of upcoming pro-democracy events and plans to meet with a prominent Hong Kong dissident while the latter was in the United States, according to an indictment.

During a series of FBI interviews between 2017 and 2021, Wang initially said he had no contacts with the Ministry of State Security, but he later acknowledged on videotape that the intelligence agency asked him to gather information on democracy advocates and that he sometimes did, FBI agents testified.

But, they said, he claimed he didn’t provide anything valuable, just information already in the public domain.

Wang’s lawyers portrayed him as a gregarious academic with nothing to hide.

“In general, fair to say he was very open and talkative with you, right?” defense attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma asked an undercover agent who approached Wang in 2021 under the guise of being affiliated with the Chinese security ministry.

“He was,” said the agent, who testified under a pseudonym. He recorded his conversation with Wang at the latter’s house in Connecticut.

“Did he seem a little lonely?” Margulis-Ohnuma asked a bit later. The agent said he didn’t recall.

Wang told agents his “diaries” were advertisements for the foundation’s meetings or write-ups that he was publishing in newspapers, according to testimony. He also suggested to the undercover agent that publishing them would be a way to deflect any suspicion from U.S. authorities.

Another agent, Garrett Igo, told jurors that when Wang found out in 2019 that investigators would search his phone for any contacts in the Chinese government, he paused for a minute.

“And then he said, ‘Do anything. I don’t care,'” Igo recalled.
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WASHINGTON — China said it would begin adding controls and regulation to the production of three chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl, the White House said on Tuesday, calling the move “a valuable step forward.” 

It is the third significant such action since the United States and China resumed bilateral counter-narcotics cooperation in November 2023, acting National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement. 

Illicit fentanyl remains a potent issue for U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who has clinched the Democratic nomination for the November 5 U.S. presidential election. Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 and over 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2023. 

As part of an effort launched last year to thaw icy relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden agreed to cooperate with Beijing on counter-narcotics. 

A delegation of senior Chinese officials met Biden administration officials last Wednesday to continue conversations on increasing controls on fentanyl chemicals and restricting financing for the drug trade in China. 

A U.S. congressional committee said in April that China was directly subsidizing production of illicit fentanyl precursors for sale abroad and fueling the U.S. opioid crisis, releasing findings from an investigation it said unveiled Beijing’s incentives for the deadly chemicals.
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WASHINGTON — It was billed as the “biggest ever economic development project” in north Michigan when Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2022 welcomed a Chinese lithium-ion battery company’s plan to build a $2.36 billion factory and bring a couple thousand jobs to Big Rapids. 

Now the project by Gotion High-Tech is in the crosshairs of some U.S. lawmakers and residents. 

Leading the charge is Republican Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, who accuses the Chinese company of having ties to forced labor and says he fears it could spy for Beijing and work to extend China’s influence in the U.S. heartland. Gotion rejects the accusations. 

“I want to see this area have more jobs and investments, but we must not welcome companies that are controlled by people who see us as the enemy and we should not allow them to build here,” Moolenaar said at a recent roundtable discussion in Michigan. 

Lured by the large U.S. market, Chinese businesses are coming to the United States with money, jobs and technology, only to find rising suspicion at a time of an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry that has spread into the business world. 

U.S. wariness of China, coupled with Beijing’s desire to protect its technological competitiveness, threatens to rupture ties between the world’s two largest economies. That could hurt businesses, workers and consumers, which some warn could undermine the economic foundation that has helped stabilize relations. 

“This is a lose-lose scenario for the two countries,” Zhiqun Zhu, professor of political science and international relations at Bucknell University, said in an email. “The main reason is U.S.-China rivalry, and the U.S. government prioritizes ‘national security’ over economic interests in dealing with China.” 

Lizhi Liu, an assistant professor of business at Georgetown University, said the trend, along with the decline of U.S. investments in China, could hurt China-U.S. relations. 

“Strong investment ties between the two nations are crucial not only for economic reasons but also for security, as intertwined economic interests reduce the likelihood of major conflicts or even war,” she said. 

But U.S. lawmakers believe the stakes are high. Senator Marco Rubio said at a July hearing that China is not only a military and diplomatic adversary for the U.S. but also a “technological, industrial and commercial” opponent. 

“The technological and industrial high ground has always been a precursor of global power,” said Rubio, a Republican from Florida.  

The bipartisan House Select Committee on China has warned that widespread adoption in the U.S. of technologies developed by China could threaten long-term U.S. technological competitiveness. 

U.S. public sentiment against Chinese investments began to build during President Barack Obama’s administration, in a pushback against globalization, and were amplified after President Donald Trump came into office, said Yilang Feng, an assistant professor of business at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who studies economic nationalism and resistance to foreign direct investments in the U.S. 

“The scale has increased, so has the intensity,” Feng said. 

As President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to revive American manufacturing and boost U.S. technological capabilities, many politicians believe Chinese companies should be kept out. 

“Can you imagine working for an American company working tirelessly to develop battery technology and then you find out that your tax dollars are being used to subsidize a competitor from China?” Moolenaar said as he campaigned against the Gotion project in his congressional district in a state that is critical in the presidential election. 

Whitmer’s office has declined to comment on the project. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation told The Associated Press it has received “bipartisan support at all levels” to move forward with the project, which will create up to 2,350 jobs. 

Residents of Green Charter Township, however, revolted against the project over its Chinese connections last year when they removed five officials who supported it in a recall election. 

In Worcester, Massachusetts, the Chinese biotech company WuXi Biologics paused construction of a large facility a few weeks after lawmakers introduced a bill that would, over data security concerns, ban U.S. entities receiving federal funds from doing business with several China-linked companies, WuXi Biologics included. 

John Ling, who has helped South Carolina and Georgia attract Chinese businesses for nearly two decades, said geopolitics have been getting in the way in recent years. Chinese companies are less likely to consider South Carolina after the state senate last year approved a bill banning Chinese citizens from buying property, even though the bill has yet to clear the statehouse, Ling said. 

Data by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show the total investments by China in the U.S. fell to just under $44 billion in 2023, from a high point of $63 billion in 2017, although first-year expenditures rose to $621 million in 2023, up from $531 million in 2022 but drastically down from the high of $27 billion in 2016. The figures include acquisitions, new business establishments and expansions. 

In 2022, Michigan beat out several other states in luring Gotion. Keen to revive its manufacturing base, the state offered a package of incentives, including $175 million in grants and the approval of a new zone that could save the company $540 million. Local townships approved tax abatements for Gotion to build a factory to make components for electrical vehicle batteries. 

In Green Charter Township, the new board dropped support for the project and rescinded an agreement to extend water to the factory site, only to be rebuked by a U.S. district judge. 

The future of the plant remains uncertain, as Moolenaar is rallying support for his bill that would prevent Gotion from receiving federal subsidies. He accuses the company of using forced labor, after congressional staff discovered links between the company and Xinjiang Production Construction Corps., a paramilitary group sanctioned by the U.S. Commerce Department for its involvement in China’s forced labor practice. 

Chuck Thelen, vice president of manufacturing of Gotion North America, recently called the forced labor accusations “categorically false and clearly intended to deceive.” 
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