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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2806863

The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region.

The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait.

Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the one issued on Wednesday and another in April 2022.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday.

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Several big battery projects in Australia vital for storing renewable energy to meet the nation’s climate goals are highly likely to be using materials sourced through the forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups in China, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) research has found.

ASPI has examined the supply chains for big battery projects across various Australian states and found that, even when the batteries are sourced from US-based companies, critical components are still obtained from Chinese suppliers. These suppliers carry well-documented risks of involvement in human rights abuses.

Australia needs big batteries because its renewable energy plans require storage for intermittent sources such as wind, solar and hydro. That’s why state and territory governments are pouring billions of dollars into battery energy storage systems (BESS), also known as big batteries.

However, most of the global battery supply is controlled by companies based in the People’s Republic of China and is dependent on raw materials mined and processed in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region (XUAR). Two of the largest companies that supply batteries and lithium cells for batteries—Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) and EVE—are used in Australian projects in spite of having been reported to be implicated in grave human rights violations, notably forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups in the manufacturing and processing of raw materials. In a damning 2022 report, the United Nations stated that such violations might constitute crimes against humanity.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2787282

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Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has castigated fellow EU member states that do business with China, saying his own country is an example of surviving “without Russian gas and Chinese contracts”.

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“As we see our partners and friends in Europe signing new contracts with China, we warn of the dangers of those contracts... We are an example that it is possible to survive without Russian gas and Chinese contracts,” the Lithuanian foreign minister told a press conference.

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According to Landsbergis, the EU should have a common strategy towards China. “As is often the case in Europe, 27 states create 27 different interests. Our opponents are able to exploit this,” he insisted.

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“Our team is carrying a message of concern to Europe about increasing partnership between China and Russia. China’s support for Russian defence industrial base, its efforts behind the scenes to support Russia in its battlefield aims in Ukraine have been devastating and concerning,” Campbell said.

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Meanwhile, [United States Deputy Secretary of State Kurt] Campbell said that Lithuania was the country that had come under the most pressure from China when it allowed Taipei to open a representative office under the name of “Taiwan”.

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[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2778153

Uyghur human rights group calls out UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for his weak response to China’s genocidal policies

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In a pointed response to the statement delivered by Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the 57th session of the Human Rights Council, Justice For All‘s Save Uyghur Campaign strongly criticizes his failure to address the egregious human rights abuses committed against the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Chinese-occupied East Turkistan.

On August 31, 2022, after a multi-year assessment, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concluded that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in East Turkistan. Justice For All is outraged that, after two years, the Chinese government not only defies the OHCHR assessment’s findings but also steadfastly refuses to implement the High Commissioner’s urgent recommendations.

These include the immediate release of all individuals arbitrarily detained, an end to all forms of intimidation and reprisals against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan and abroad, and a thorough investigation into allegations of horrific human rights abuses, including torture, sexual violence, forced labor, and forced medical treatment. This blatant disregard for human dignity and international norms is absolutely unacceptable.

Mr. Türk’s remarks included only two fleeting references to China’s oppressive policies, failing to capture the systemic and targeted atrocities that the Uyghur community has faced. Türk stated, “Despite some important advancements, 30 years after the universal commitments on women’s rights in Beijing, the shadow of patriarchy still looms large,” and “In China, undue restrictions on civic space continue to be imposed in the name of national security and social stability.” These statements are grossly inadequate when addressing the severity of the situation, which includes gender-based violence against Uyghur women such as forced sterilizations, abortions, sexual abuse, and forced marriages to Han-Chinese individuals, as well as the mass arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in concentration camps, prisons, and forced labor camps across East Turkistan.

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Moscow has funnelled billions of dollars to its army, soldiers, their families and weapons makers to sustain its military campaign -- a spending splurge that helped it defy Western hopes that sanctions would push it into economic collapse.

But after warning for months that the economy was overheating, the country's Central Bank has lately started mentioning the possibility of another, possibly more challenging development: stagflation.

"The shortage of (labour) resources may lead to a situation where economic growth slows down, despite all the efforts to stimulate demand, with all that stimulus accelerating inflation," Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said over the summer.

"In essence, this is a stagflation scenario, which can only be stopped at the cost of a deep recession," she warned.

'De-modernising'

Stagflation -- a period of low or stagnant growth accompanied by high inflation -- would present a fresh headache for the Kremlin, which has until now navigated the economic fallout of its offensive on Ukraine better than most believed possible.

Moscow has increased government spending by almost 50 percent since sending troops into Ukraine, pushing up growth and wages.

Unemployment is at a record low and consumer confidence is its highest in 15 years.

But an exodus of both skilled and unskilled workers -- who fled mobilisation or joined the army -- has created millions of unfilled vacancies. Sanctions on Western technology have also hit productivity and damaged supply chains.

"In the long-term these demographic factors and technological issues will result in very low economic growth," Ruben Enikolopov, a Russian professor at the Barcelona School of Economics, says.

"There is a high probability of a stagflation scenario in 2025 and the years after. It's not a certainty, but high likelihood," he added.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2777930

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In its early stages in 2009, [Chinese social media platform] Sina Weibo built its success on larger-than-life personalities known as the “Big Vs” (大V), who were meant to be magnets attracting conversation — and much-desired traffic — to the platform. The strategy worked, and by 2010 media would proclaim that China had entered the “Weibo Era” (微博时代). But within several years, the idea of a privately-owned tech platform building mass audiences outside of CCP control would become untenable for the leadership. A 2014 crackdown on “Big Vs” was the beginning, some might say, of the inexorable unraveling.

Now, 15 years on from the “beta” launch of Weibo, it may be time to ask: has life gone out of the platform?

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China’s leaders, who today still make it their business to “guide public opinion” through the control of media and communication, had long bristled at the notion of “public intellectuals” outside the official system. The emergence of op-ed pages in commercial metro newspapers (都市类报纸) in the early 2000s had given rise to broader range of voices. In December 2004, the Central Propaganda Department-run Guangming Daily (光明日报) ran a series of scathing attacks on the notion of “public intellectuals,” which it dismissed as a dangerous product of Western social thought.

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A decade on from Xi Jinping’s concerted push to rein in the “Big Vs” created by Weibo’s original celebrity push, the platform seems a shadow of itself. Competition from more personalized apps like Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and unrelenting pressure facing more controversial accounts, have driven a mass migration of Weibo users. Today, writes 36Kr, Weibo’s special community feel has vanished. The open discussions that once buzzed around public intellectuals are gone.

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Politics has of course made its own contributions to the disappearance of public intellectuals from the platform. Former Global Times editor-in-chief and “Big V” Hu Xijin (胡锡进) has not posted anything on Weibo since late July, when his influential account was suspended for an unauthorized interpretation of the Third Plenum decision. On August 7, the account of Lao Dongyan (劳东燕), a criminal law professor at Tsinghua University with a respectable following of her own, was also banned for defending her criticisms of upcoming internet IDs for Chinese netizens.

Forums like Zhihu (知乎) or WeChat Moments still provide a town square of sorts for groups to form, but these are smaller, devoid of the larger-than-life “public intellectuals” of Weibo that once served as known voices for netizens to rally round [...] Many [public intellectuals] are laying low, which makes China’s internet a far quieter place.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2755986

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China must reprioritize economic growth and reforms and boost investor confidence by leveling the playing field for all companies in the country, a European business group said Wednesday.

With “business confidence now at an all-time low” over lagging domestic demand and overcapacity in certain industries, the annual European Business in China Position Paper called on China to open its economy and allow a more free market to determine resource allocation. It also recommended introducing policies to boost domestic demand.

Profit margins in China are at or below the global average for two-thirds of the companies surveyed earlier in the year, according to the paper published Wednesday by the European Chamber of Commerce in China.

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Many European businesses are deciding that the returns on investments in the world’s second-largest economy are not worth the risks, due to issues including China’s economic slowdown and a politicized business environment.

“For some European headquarters and shareholders, the risks of investing in China are beginning to outright the returns, a trend that will only intensify if key business concerns are left unaddressed,” Jens Eskelund, president of China’s European Union Chamber of Commerce, said in a message at the beginning of the paper.

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2752431

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy have arrived in Kyiv on a joint visit as Ukraine continues to press for the right to use US and British long-range missiles against Russia.

The two men travelled together to the Ukrainian capital after talks in London. They are due to meet President Volodymr Zelensky, who has repeatedly called on Washington to loosen the limits on US-supplied weapons.

Blinken said one of their goals was to "hear directly from the Ukrainian leadership" about their "objectives and what we can do to support those needs".

Earlier, US President Joe Biden said his administration was "working" on whether to lift the restrictions.

The policy will come under further scrutiny when UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer meets Biden at the White House on Friday.

Ukraine's Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, thanked Lammy for the UK’s military support for Ukraine throughout the war.

But he added: “We hope that long-range equipment for strikes on the territory of our enemy will be reached and we will have it and we hope for your help and support in this issue.”

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[Four midwives] had been identified by a non-governmental organisation as being behind the murder of baby girls in the district of Katihar where, under pressure from the newborns’ parents, they were killing them by feeding them chemicals or simply wringing their necks.

Hakiya Devi, the eldest of the midwives I interviewed, [said] at the time she had killed 12 or 13 babies. Another midwife, Dharmi Devi, admitted to killing more - at least 15-20.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of babies they may have killed, given the way the data was gathered.

But they featured in a report published in 1995 by an NGO, based on interviews with them and 30 other midwives. If the report’s estimates are accurate, more than 1,000 baby girls were being murdered every year in one district, by just 35 midwives. According to the report, Bihar at the time had more than half a million midwives. And infanticide was not limited to Bihar.

Refusing orders, Hakiya said, was almost never an option for a midwife.

“The family would lock the room and stand behind us with sticks,” says Hakiya Devi. “They’d say: ‘We already have four-five daughters. This will wipe out our wealth. Once we give dowry for our girls, we will starve to death. Now, another girl has been born. Kill her.’

“Who could we complain to? We were scared. If we went to the police, we’d get into trouble. If we spoke up, people would threaten us."

The daily English lessons that Shabana [not her real name] attends are the highlight of her day. Taking the bus in Kabul to the private course with her friends, chatting and laughing with them, learning something new for one hour each day - it’s a brief respite from the emptiness that has engulfed her life since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

In another country, Shabana* would have been graduating from high school next year, pursuing her dream to get a business degree. In Afghanistan, she and all teenage girls have been barred from formal education for three years.

Now even the small joys that were making life bearable are fraught with fear after a new law was announced saying if a woman is outside her home, even her voice must not be heard.

“When we got out, we’re scared. When we’re on the bus, we’re scared. We don’t dare to take down our masks. We even avoid speaking among ourselves, thinking that if someone from the Taliban hears us they could stop and question us,” she says.

The BBC has been in Afghanistan, allowing rare access to the country's women and girls - as well as Taliban spokespeople - reacting to the new law, which was imposed by the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The law gives the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Ministry – the Taliban’s morality police - sweeping powers to enforce a stringent code of conduct for Afghan citizens.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2746839

The motion, introduced by Andrew Wallace MP in the lower house of the Australian parliament called out China’s systematic cultural assimilation of Tibetans. It affirmed the Tibetan people’s rights to freely choose their economic, social, cultural, and religious policies without external interference. It highlighted the right of religious communities to select their own leaders, including the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama, without Chinese government intervention.

While moving the motion, Representative Wallace stated, “The Chinese Communist Party is not content with simply trying to wipe out the culture of Tibet and Tibetans; they also want to remove their religious background. The CCP wants to control who will become the successor to the Dalai Lama. Australia’s parliament stood in solidarity, united by the convention that we cannot remain silent in the face of evil.”

Susan Templeman MP, Co-Chair of Parliament Friendship of Tibet, seconded the motion, urging Chinese authorities to release the Panchen Lama and reiterating Australia’s stance against interference in selecting the next Dalai Lama. Dr Daniel Mulino- MP and Hon. Dr David Gillespie- MP also spoke in support, highlighting the forced assimilation of Tibetan children and suppression of religious and cultural practices in Tibet.

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In response to these concerns, the Australian Parliament called on China to re-engage with representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama to establish genuine autonomy for Tibetans within China, repeal discriminatory legislation, end arbitrary detention and family separation programs, remove restrictions on Tibetan culture and language, and allow access to Tibet for independent human rights observers.

The motion also referenced recent international developments, including United Nations reports on the assimilation of Tibetan children through residential schools, the European Union’s resolution on the forced abduction of Tibetan children in December 2023, Canada’s resolution supporting Tibet and the United States ‘Promoting a Resolution to Tibet-China Act’ passed in June 2024. The motion reaffirmed Australia’s concern over China’s assimilationist policies, which include forced labour programs, the coerced separation of Tibetan children from their families, detention for peaceful political expression, and the suppression of religious practices.

The motion, introduced by Andrew Wallace MP in the lower house of the Australian parliament called out China’s systematic cultural assimilation of Tibetans. It affirmed the Tibetan people’s rights to freely choose their economic, social, cultural, and religious policies without external interference. It highlighted the right of religious communities to select their own leaders, including the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama, without Chinese government intervention.

While moving the motion, Representative Wallace stated, “The Chinese Communist Party is not content with simply trying to wipe out the culture of Tibet and Tibetans; they also want to remove their religious background. The CCP wants to control who will become the successor to the Dalai Lama. Australia’s parliament stood in solidarity, united by the convention that we cannot remain silent in the face of evil.”

Susan Templeman MP, Co-Chair of Parliament Friendship of Tibet, seconded the motion, urging Chinese authorities to release the Panchen Lama and reiterating Australia’s stance against interference in selecting the next Dalai Lama. Dr Daniel Mulino- MP and Hon. Dr David Gillespie- MP also spoke in support, highlighting the forced assimilation of Tibetan children and suppression of religious and cultural practices in Tibet.

[...]

In response to these concerns, the Australian Parliament called on China to re-engage with representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama to establish genuine autonomy for Tibetans within China, repeal discriminatory legislation, end arbitrary detention and family separation programs, remove restrictions on Tibetan culture and language, and allow access to Tibet for independent human rights observers.

The motion also referenced recent international developments, including United Nations reports on the assimilation of Tibetan children through residential schools, the European Union’s resolution on the forced abduction of Tibetan children in December 2023, Canada’s resolution supporting Tibet and the United States ‘Promoting a Resolution to Tibet-China Act’ passed in June 2024. The motion reaffirmed Australia’s concern over China’s assimilationist policies, which include forced labour programs, the coerced separation of Tibetan children from their families, detention for peaceful political expression, and the suppression of religious practices.