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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47438942

China’s government has long sought to silence dissent abroad, but recently there’s been a disturbing escalation: harassment through sexually explicit letters targeting activists outside the country.

Hongkongers Carmen Lau and Ted Hui are exiled activists who face arrest warrants back in Hong Kong under the draconian National Security Law. They revealed last week that anonymous individuals were distributing in the United Kingdom and Australia sexually explicit deepfakes depicting them and their families. While police investigations in both countries could not trace the origins of these images, after Lau went public, a Chinese government spokesperson defended the pursuit of “wanted fugitives” as “legitimate and reasonable.”

There is evidence that the Chinese government was directly involved in a similar case in 2024, when anonymous online accounts circulated threatening and sexually suggestive posts targeting the 16-year-old daughter of Deng Yuwen, a US-based critic of the Chinese government, that were subsequently traced back to China’s security agencies. These tactics appear to have surged in recent years: the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a think tank, noted the increasingly gendered nature of online harassment against critics of the Chinese government as early as 2022.

[...]

Governments need to take effective steps against “transnational repression”—cross-border abuses against activists and their families. First, they should publicly condemn such acts, especially harassment designed to psychologically abuse, shame, and marginalize critics.

Second, they need to investigate cases thoroughly, track patterns of transnational repression, and establish reporting mechanisms for diaspora communities. The US and Australian governments have taken some of these actions; other governments should follow suit.

Third, governments should commit to transparency by regularly reporting on progress addressing transnational repression.

Finally, governments need to commit to prioritizing victims. Beyond a law enforcement response, authorities should provide resources to support victims’ digital security and mental health needs, so that those exiled may enjoy the same rights as everyone else in their new country and feel safe again.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47414660

Australia is emerging as an alternative destination in global people smuggling routes involving Chinese nationals, as tougher US border controls push smuggling networks to test new maritime pathways through South-East Asia.

Last week six Chinese nationals who arrived in Australia by sea were found in a remote Indigenous community in Western Australia and detained by border authorities.

WA Police said the group had travelled on an unidentified vessel and was believed to be part of a larger attempt to reach the country by boat. A Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat beached on a beach with border force agents and two men in life vests.

[...]

Similar incidents have been recorded in Western Australia and the Northern Territory over the past year, and migration lawyer Sean Dong says he is seeing an increasing number of attempts by people from China.

[...]

While Chinese nationals arriving by sea remain rare, the case points to a broader rerouting of irregular migration from China, known as "walking the route", driven by tougher US border controls under the Trump administration.

With fewer legal migration options available, smugglers are using countries in South-East Asia such as Indonesia as transit hubs to probe Australia's maritime frontier.

[...]

"Walking the route" refers to Chinese nationals using irregular and often dangerous pathways to leave China and reach other countries without legal documents, visas or formal migration channels.

The term first became widely known in China through journeys to the US via Latin America and the Mexico border, but it is now also used to describe attempts to reach Australia by sea.

These journeys are typically organised by people smuggling syndicates, commonly referred to as "snakeheads", who coordinate transport, transit points and illegal border crossings.

[...]

Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, told the ABC that many people are unaware of the scale of Operation Sovereign Borders, the policy introduced in 2013 to prevent maritime arrivals of asylum seekers.

"I think some people still believe that there is a general humanitarian reputation in Australia," he said.

Mr Rintoul said Chinese asylum seekers were not unusual in this regard, and often faced the same constraints as others who had attempted irregular journeys.

Many, he said, had no realistic way to migrate legally, either because of poverty or because they were unable to obtain the necessary travel documents.

Others may avoid formal travel channels because they are known to authorities — including political activists or members of persecuted ethnic or religious minorities — leaving few options beyond irregular routes.

"For them, travelling by plane may not be possible."

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47360092

Archived

In China’s heavily indebted cities, “fiscal winter” is manifesting through a peculiar ritual: businessmen crowding government offices in a year-end rush to claim overdue contract payments. In private conversations, some bitterly recounted waiting for hours in line to deliver a short, rehearsed plea for payments – only to be told that the official they sought was unavailable. For the well-connected lot who were granted an audience, the meeting often ended quickly: a shrug, an apology, and a resigned admission from the official that his coffers were empty.

The fiscal strain weighing on China’s local governments has been long in the making. Years of debt-fueled infrastructure expansion, lax oversight of off-balance-sheet borrowing, and heavy spending during pandemic years have left many localities dangerously leveraged. The collapse in land-sale revenue and slumping tax receipts have further battered local finances. Adding to the stress, Beijing has demanded that local governments rein in their liabilities, lately by setting up a new department under the Finance Ministry to oversee debt repayment.

[...]

For officials, delaying payments to government contractors and suppliers is “easy”: few small and medium-sized firms are willing to challenge the state. In an unusual piece of investigative reporting this month, state media noted that many private businessmen dare not file lawsuits or shang fang (“petitioning higher authorities”), fearing the consequences of antagonizing local officials.

[...]

Lacking meaningful recourse, these entrepreneurs have resorted to the most basic form of debt collection: turning up in person, again and again, at the doors of local officials to press for payment. Their survival depends on it: by custom, business owners must settle workers’ wages and supplier bills before the Lunar New Year. In an economy already weighed down by slowing growth and weak demand, securing those payments often determines whether a firm stays afloat or goes under.

[...]

Central policymakers are aware of the payment woes weighing on businesses. In recent years, Beijing has rolled out a steady stream of guidelines and directives requiring officials to settle outstanding bills without further delay. A mandate for local governments to clear arrears was codified in the country’s Private Economy Promotion Law enacted in June. Still, flashy slogans and political campaigns won’t do much to resolve the structural causes of unpaid bills.

[...]

Local governments are tasked with spending obligations that far exceed their fiscal capacity. Beyond reining in liabilities, Beijing expects local governments to support growth and employment, subsidize research and innovation, and shoulder the costs of social-welfare expansion. Dwindling resources and competing priorities force officials to improvise – cut some expenses here, defer a few payments there – to keep up the appearance of solvency.

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Local governments have already been operating under so-called “belt-tightening” austerity, from cutting administrative costs to withholding wages and bonuses for state employees. When that wasn’t enough, officials turned to more harmful tactics like delaying payment and ratcheting up administrative fines. Some went further still: this summer, government auditors found that dozens of localities had misappropriated state funds – originally earmarked for pension and infrastructure investment – to cover debt repayment.

[...]

A festering local debt crisis poses major headwinds as officials undercut private companies, pare back industrial subsidies, and divert welfare funds to meet debt obligations. Delaying a solution will only sap confidence and undermine the future Beijing hopes to build.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47167958

Archived

At least two fistfights broke out last week between [Temu parent company] PDD Holdings Inc. employees and Chinese regulators who were performing checks at the e-commerce company’s Shanghai premises, according to people familiar with the matter.

The altercations involved PDD staff and officials from the State Administration for Market Regulation, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue. The SAMR [stands for State Administration for Market Regulation in China] officials were investigating reports of fraudulent deliveries on PDD’s platform, the people said, adding that police made several arrests in the aftermath.

While details of how the fights began weren’t immediately clear, the episode may trigger investor concern about increased regulatory scrutiny of PDD. It’s unheard of for interactions between large Chinese companies and regulators to descend into physical confrontations, even as tensions often run high between the two sides.

The SAMR, an agency with sweeping powers to investigate industries from technology to energy, led a high-profile antitrust probe against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in 2020 that culminated in a sector-wide clampdown. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government has since made a concerted push to show its support for the private sector, including in a meeting between Xi and entrepreneurs such as Alibaba’s Jack Ma in February.

...

PDD, better-known as the creator of Temu and the Pinduoduo Chinese e-commerce platform, competes directly with Alibaba and JD.com domestically. Abroad, it’s known as an aggressive online retailer that, along with Shein, has ambitions to become a major player in the US and Europe.

PDD’s rapid growth has drawn regulatory attention not just at home.

Temu’s European headquarters in Dublin were raided by European Union competition watchdogs, amid suspicions the Chinese e-commerce giant may have received unfair subsidies from Beijing. Those unannounced inspections took place last week, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke under condition of anonymity.

PDD just last month warned of a slowdown in an intensively competitive Chinese consumption environment, reflecting an escalating battle in online commerce.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47160442

Archived

• China's ties with Japan have spiraled over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks, but President Xi Jinping is taking a more measured approach.
• Despite the dispute, Japanese brands such as Uniqlo, Muji, and Sushiro are still popular in China, with some even seeing an increase in business.
• Chinese authorities have avoided stoking public anger, with officials discouraging travel to Japan and limiting seafood imports, but not inciting widespread boycotts of Japanese products.

[...]

Asia’s top economies might be at loggerheads on the world stage, but for China’s 1.4 billion shoppers it’s largely business as normal. That’s because while Communist Party officials have discouraged travel to Japan, limited seafood imports and canceled some Japanese concerts and films, authorities have avoided stoking public anger to a level beyond their control.

It marks an evolution in China’s economic coercion playbook as leaders calibrate their retaliation to avoid denting already weak consumer spending at home or stirring up hard-to-contain social unrest.

[...]

“Inciting public anger could lead to unpredictable outcomes that would potentially be difficult for the government to manage,” said Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group and a former US diplomat in China and Japan. “Japanese foods and products remain immensely popular in China,” he added, calling the dispute over Takaichi’s comments “abstract” to the general public.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47160775

Archived

[...]

A barrage of human rights groups and others, including Index on Censorship, Amnesty International and Save the Children, have all criticised or opposed the ban.

Tom Sulston, head of policy at Australian charity Digital Rights Watch, told Index that they were broadly supportive of the idea that internet access is a human right. While the new law only restricts teens from accessing 10 specific sites – X, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch – he said that the space these social media companies represent is enormous.

“They do occupy this space as the town square of digital society,” Sulston said. “So, is it proportionate to remove that right of access to a group of people in order to protect their safety, or under the guise of protecting their safety? We don’t think so.”

[...]

There is now an interesting legal conversation to be had about the ban, Sulston said. On 26 November, two 15-year-olds launched a legal challenge to the law, supported by rights group the Digital Freedom Project (DFP), in Australia’s High Court. They are arguing that all Australians have a constitutional implied right to freedom of political communication.

“Young people like me are the voters of tomorrow,” said one plaintiff Macy Neyland in a statement. “Why on earth should we be banned from expressing our views?” Neyland added that the situation was “like Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four”.

Noah Jones, who is also suing the government, told the media: “We’re disappointed in a lazy government that blanket-bans under-16s rather than investing in programmes to help kids be safe on social media. They should protect kids with safeguards, not silence.”

A direction hearing for the teens’ court challenge will be heard in February at the earliest.

[...]

Digital Rights Watch’s Sulston said that he was also worried about autocracies eyeing up the law. According to digital rights non-profit Access Now, 2024 was the worst year on record for internet shutdowns.

“Young people are not represented democratically, even in democratic societies. If you’re under the age to vote, then you get nothing,” Sulston said. “So being able to organise and develop political understanding and take political action online is really important for that cohort. You can see why it would be very attractive for authoritarian regimes to clamp down on that.”

But Sulston said that even though he considered the law a “disaster” and there was no evidence that it would improve children’s lives, it had already been showcased at the UN General Assembly and “deemed a great success”.

He said: “It’s really hard to see what a path to change looks like, because no matter how harmful it is, it seems we’re stuck with it.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47116727

Archived

[...]

"We are recording an actual increase in the de-sovereignization of part of Russian territory in favor of China. This primarily concerns the use of resource-rich lands and the sale of scarce resources to China," Ukraine's President is cited after a report by the Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Oleh Ivashchenko.

"We are also recording that China is taking steps to intensify cooperation with Russia, particularly in the field of the defense industry. Intelligence services of our partners have similar information."

[...]

In a related report, U.S. outlet Newsweek cites Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute: “Xi Jinping views Russia as an indispensable strategic partner in constructing a post-U.S.–led world order.

“Reconciling these competing impulses points toward a strategy of slow, steady accretions of effective sovereignty, punctuated by performative shows of solidarity, from parades to joint military drills, that mask an emerging asymmetry," Cronin adds.

Cronin said however that China "clearly appears poised to expand its influence across its shared borderlands through a mix of brazen cyber intrusions and opportunistic moves to anchor itself inside Russia’s increasingly enfeebled economy."

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47102563

Archived

China's national security office in Hong Kong warned foreign media on Saturday not to spread "false information" or "smear" government efforts to deal with the city's worst fire in nearly 80 years.

Ahead of a legislative council election on Sunday in the global financial hub, the Office for Safeguarding National Security said it had summoned a number of unspecified foreign media outlets, criticising coverage of the fire that killed at least 159 people at the Wang Fuk Court high-rise residential complex.

[...]

"Some foreign media have recently reported on Hong Kong ignoring the facts, spreading false information, distorting and smearing the government's disaster relief and aftermath work, attacking and interfering with the Legislative Council election, provoking social division and opposition," the statement said.

[...]

Saturday's meeting appeared to be the first such gathering of foreign media en masse to face criticism for their coverage of a specific event by the office, which is led by senior Chinese Ministry of State Security officials.

[...]

Authorities have detained several activists who pushed for greater government accountability. Beijing has also warned people against using the disaster to "disrupt Hong Kong".

Hong Kong ranks 140th of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index compiled by the advocacy group Reporters without Borders.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 77, a prominent China critic, faces potentially being jailed for life in a national security trial. U.S. President Donald Trump pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a meeting last month to release Lai, Reuters reported.

[...]

Reuters said it was not contacted about the meeting and did not participate. It did not say which media took part.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47068812

Villagers accuse Putin’s Africa Corps of atrocities that echo Wagner mercenaries’ brutality.

Archived

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/47035078

[...]

“The people of Hong Kong understandably want answers and accountability, so that the hundreds of victims are properly compensated and to avoid such a tragedy occurring again," UN human rights chief Volker Türk said.

Mr. Türk noted that the authorities appointed an independent review committee and initiated criminal and anti-corruption investigations into the fire – but have so far stopped short of appointing a commission of inquiry with full investigative powers.

[,,,]

“I am deeply concerned by reports that the territory’s draconian security laws are being applied against individuals who have called publicly for a transparent and independent inquiry, a review of construction oversight, government accountability, and support for affected residents, among other things,” he said.

“I urge the authorities to drop these cases against those seeking accountability.”

The UN rights chief stressed that several provisions and practices under the 2020 National Security Law and the 2024 Safeguarding National Security Ordinance do not comply with international human rights law, particularly the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality governing permissible restrictions on rights.

[...]

“The cumulative impacts of these laws reflect a systemic erosion in enjoyment of human rights, including the fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association in what was once a vibrant hub for civil society, vigorous debate on public policy, and independent media in the region,” he said.

The High Commissioner also expressed concerns about electoral changes which have reduced the proportion of directly elected District Council seats to less than 20 per cent of its full membership.

“The compelled dissolution of major political parties has effectively eliminated organized political opposition,” he said.

[...]

Mr. Türk insisted that “there is an opportunity to restore meaningful civic space in Hong Kong, by rolling back these measures that restrict political participation and suppress dissent.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46973777

Archived

Chinese government circulated sexually explicit deepfakes of dissident Yao Zhang.

Yao Zhang says she doesn’t have any friends, yet every week, thousands of her 175,000 YouTube subscribers tune in to her channel to listen to her live takes on Chinese current affairs.

“China isn’t a democratic country. Everyone suffers in that regime,” Zhang told Radio-Canada during an interview held somewhere between Montreal and Quebec City.

Concerned for her safety, the 39-year-old guards any information that could give away her location.

And for good reason: the Quebec YouTuber, who refuses to be silenced, has been the target of an intimidation campaign by the Chinese government for over a year.

“I have to be very, very careful,” she said. “I stopped all communications with the Chinese community because I don’t know who I can trust.”

[...]

Trained in accounting at McGill University, Zhang did a 180 during the pandemic and began offering news commentary on YouTube, which she continues to do today. The Communist Party of China and president Xi Jinping are often the subjects of her criticisms.

“I’m with Taiwan, I’m with the Uyghurs, I’m with Hong Kong. I’m against the Chinese government,” said the pro-democracy activist.

It was in September 2024 that Zhang first noticed sexually explicit AI-generated images of herself circulating online.

“It wasn’t just one photo. There were many, many of them,” she remembered with disgust.

Shared by anonymous accounts, the images were published on social media under posts of official accounts belonging to the Canadian government and then prime minister Justin Trudeau.

[...]

For the YouTuber, there was no doubt the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was behind what she was seeing. And she was right.

In March, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) released a statement blaming the PRC for a new "spamouflage" campaign using sexually explicit AI-generated images to target individuals in Canada. Zhang says the government told her she is the first documented case of the campaign.

“This new campaign employs various tactics to intimidate, belittle and harass individuals based in Canada who are critical of the PRC,” reads the statement.

Notably, Zhang and members of her family have been doxed. Her date of birth, phone and passport numbers all appear on a doxing website that labels her as a “traitor.” The site, which is still accessible to this day, also uses degrading language to spread defamatory sexually explicit statements about her.

[...]

Though the YouTuber benefits from a certain degree of protection in Canada, she can’t say the same for her family in China.

In 2024, after a trip to Taiwan to support the island’s independence, Zhang said China's national police put pressure on her aunt and grandmother living there in an attempt to silence her.

The strategy is a well known one, detailed in a report published earlier this year by the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions.

“[The PRC] employs a wide range of tradecraft to carry out its activities, one of which is to use a person’s family and friends living in the PRC as leverage against them,” it reads.

[...]

Zhang says she’s received death threats against her and her family and is worried about retribution if she were to ever return to China.

“I’ll go to prison,” she said. “I’ll be like all those who have wanted to change China.”

[...]

Transnational repression is a “genuine scourge” in the country, concluded Marie-Josée Hogue, who presided over the public inquiry into foreign interference. The threat it poses “is real and growing,” adds the report.

The former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, who occupied the function from 2012 to 2016, says budgets allocated to cracking down on dissent “increased substantially” after Xi came to power in 2012.

[...]

Notably, an Enquête investigation revealed that a Chinese dissident found dead in British Columbia in 2022, Hua Yong, was the target of an espionnage operation led by the Chinese secret police.

[...]

Zhang says she is at peace and hopes that more Chinese people in Canada and elsewhere in the world will speak out.

“I am using my life for something very important,” she says.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/46930338

Archived

• Tencent, China’s largest publicly traded company, operates WeChat, a chat and social media platform with 1.3 billion users in China. As all Chinese services and companies in the country's domestic markets, Tencent's WeChat is subject to Beijing's censorship.
• To Combat this censorship, the NGO "GreatFire" has been running a project called FeeWeChat. GreatFire constantly monitors WeChat for posts that contain certain “sensitive” keywords and archives them. If the archived posts later are removed on the WeChat site by Chinese censors, they mark them accordingly as 'censored.'
• FreeWeChat has documented over 45 million posts since 2015, with more than 700,000 later censored, providing insights how China's censorship machine works.
• GreatFire has been using U.S.-based cloud hosting company Vultr for its work. Now Tencent, through its intermediary Group IB, accused FreeWeChat of trademark infringement and of promoting banned content, despite the project’s role in exposing censorship practices.
• After months of silence and failed negotiations, Vultr formally terminated FreeWeChat’s hosting in November 2025, ignoring arguments from the GreatFire NGO and letters of support from human rights groups.

[...]