Story Archive
2021-07-27
China deported 50 North Koreans on July 14, sending a group including air force pilots and entrepreneurs, and hungry refugees across the Communist allies' Yalu River border to a fate that could entail severe punishment, even execution, for escaping their homeland. Trapped by the closure of the Sino-Korean border in January 2020 to prevent the coronavirus pandemic, the escapees had been housed at a prison in the Chinese city of Shenyang, some for as long as two years.
2021-07-09
China’s leading social media platform deleted dozens of accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ groups, raising concerns that the ruling Chinese Communist Party is now targeting gay content and activism. The censorship follows the 2020 cancelation of the decade-old ShanghaiPRIDE, which local activists said was likely the result political pressure from the authorities.
2021-07-01
Authorities are moving to quell rumors about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who appeared on state media recently after a lengthy absence looking noticeably thinner than before. State media have spun Kim's unexplained weight loss into a tale of the third-generation ruler sharing the hardship of his 25 million people, who struggle with chronic food insecurity in a stagnant economy made worse by a long shutdown of trade with China during the coronavirus pandemic. North Korean state TV cited a local man as saying ordinary people were weeping with heartache at the sight of a leaner Kim, but the Ministry of State Security has launched a nationwide investigation aimed at stopping speculation about his condition.