Chinese authorities detain a former Canadian diplomat just days after police in Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, CFO of China’s Huawei Technologies. Meng was arrested at Washington’s request.
China has demanded that Canada release Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies. Canadian authorities detained her on suspicion of evading U.S. trade sanctions with Iran. Meng could face extradition to the United States.
Late leader Deng Xiaoping said Communist China must experiment with capitalism by “feeling for stones” in the river. China’s current leader Xi Jinping is faced with a new dilemma in his trade war with the United States, and is also trying to feel his way across the river.
Vietnam’s law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2019, tightens control of the internet and global tech companies operating in the Communist-led country. Opponents say the law could cause economic harm and stifle online dissent.
Vietnam’s legislature is considering a proposal that would allow some prisoners to remain in cages at home. Families would be required to feed the inmates, but authorities would keep the keys to the cages. The move is aimed at reducing overcrowding in Vietnam’s prisons.
Kim Jong Un has visited the Samjiyon tourist district, near North Korea’s border with China, three times in 2018 to check on its progress. Kim mentioned the project, which includes more than 400 new buildings, in his 2018 New Year’s address.
A report by a congressional panel, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, found a steady erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The report said Beijing’s statements and actions have alarmed the territory’s legislators, civil society groups and legal community.
Now that the midterm elections are over, U.S. politicians from both parties may turn their attention to political and economic disputes with President Xi Jinping’s China.
The College Entrance Examination Bureau in the Chinese megacity Chongqing created a firestorm when it suggested that students who fail a political examination would not be eligible for college admission.
United Nations human rights experts in Geneva are assessing China amid a global outcry over the mass incarceration of an estimated one million Uyghurs and other minority ethnic Muslims in “re-education camps” in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The human rights group Freedom House reports that countries are embracing China’s model of digital authoritarianism.
Experts have blamed growing social tensions, a widening gap between rich and poor, and associated mental health problems for recent attacks on school children in China.
Outspoken Uyghur economics professor Ilham Tohti turns 49 today. In 2014, a Chinese court sentenced him to life in prison on charges of promoting separatism. Tohti regularly highlighted Beijing’s religious and cultural persecution of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to chart a difficult path between economic liberalization and tight political control.
Rights groups estimate that as many as 1 million Uyghurs have been held in re-education centers across northwest China’s Xinjiang region.
