Top News 头条
Last week, Tibetans around the world celebrated the 35th birthday of the Panchen Lama, the revered spiritual leader who has been missing for 29 years. In May 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, then just six years old, was recognized by Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second most-senior Buddhist monk. Shortly after the Dalai Lama’s announcement, Chinese authorities abducted the new Panchen Lama, his family and his teacher. Now, Tibetan leaders call once again on the Chinese government to disclose the status of the missing Panchen Lama.
Last Wednesday, the so-called TikTok bill was signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, must now sell its ownership stake in the popular social media app TikTok within the next year or the app could be banned in the United States. The battle on TikTok has been a four-year affair between Washington and Beijing. Lawmakers pushing for the bill have argued that Tiktok represented a two-pronged threat to national security – both through exposing Americans’ private data to Chinese authorities, and by potentially allowing Beijing to dictate what content they watch. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds, and TikTok users are also expected to take legal action. Meanwhile, ByteDance must reckon with the legislation across all of its other apps, many of which are growing rapidly in the U.S.
Law & Policy 法律与政策
U.S.-Asia Law Institute: This Week in Asian Law: The Ministry of State Security has approved two regulations on the handling of national security cases, the Administrative Law Enforcement Procedures of the National Security Agencies (《国家安全机关行政执法程序规定》) and the Criminal Case Handling Procedures of the National Security Agencies (《国家安全机关办理刑事案件程序规定》).
Cyber Security & Digital Rights 网络安全与数字权利
As US Tech Firms Bow to China’s Censorship, Chinese Users Risk Everything to Defy It: Last week, Apple announced that it had removed the applications WhatsApp and Threads – both owned by the U.S.-based social media firm Meta – from its app store in China on orders from the Chinese government. But while big tech is caving to Beijing’s demands, ordinary citizens are fighting back and continuing to exercise their freedom of expression.
"ArcaneDoor" Cyberspies Hacked Cisco Firewalls to Access Government Networks: Sources suspect that the targeted exploitation of two zero-day vulnerabilities in Cisco security appliances could be a state-sponsored effort by China.
Shades of Yellow: China’s top internet control body announced that it was launching a two-month crackdown on “self-media,” referring to social media accounts that are generally operated by members of the public, to counter the problem of so-called “new yellow journalism” in Chinese cyberspace, which the authorities describe as news that thrives on and profits from sensationalism.
Interview: Examining fake news sites generating Chinese propaganda: A top researcher from The Citizen Lab, a research institute at the University of Toronto, explains the “PaperWall” campaign: a single Chinese company created hundreds of media sites posing as local media from countries around the world.
Head of Belgian Foreign Affairs Committee says she was hacked by China: Els Van Hoof, the chairperson of the Belgian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in federal Parliament, told public broadcaster VRT that her laptop was hacked by Chinese spies in 2021.
Diaspora Community & Transnational Repression 海外社群和跨国镇压
Chinese student jailed in US for threatening to ‘cut off hands’ of activist: Berklee College of Music student Xiaolei Wu has been sentenced to nine months imprisonment on charges of cyberstalking and threatening behavior after threatening another student who had put up fliers saying “Stand With Chinese People” and “We Want Democracy.”
Alleged Chinese spy 'held key roles' in overseas democracy groups: Guo Jian, a European parliamentary aide, has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for China. He was a familiar presence in the overseas pro-democracy movement and had visited the Dalai Lama.
Related: Cases of suspected Chinese espionage in Europe: Several other suspected Chinese spies have been arrested in Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Poland, and Belgium.
Facing repression in China, Muslims seek freedom in NYC: More than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been detained by U.S. border patrol authorities, many of them seeking asylum. Many are ethnic Hui Muslims, who have been targeted by the Chinese authorities for their culture and religion.
Human Rights Defenders & Civil Society 人权捍卫者与公民社会
Human Rights Defenders Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan Detained for Over One Year: Human Rights in China strongly condemns the Chinese government’s illegal imprisonment of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan, who have been imprisoned for over a year since they were detained on their way to the EU Delegation in Beijing, and calls for their immediate release.
Weibo Users Discern Pro-Natalist Propaganda in Sina "DINKS" Article: A large number of Weibo users expressed suspicions that the article and associated hashtag represented a thinly veiled attempt to discredit DINKs and spread pro-natalist propaganda.
Questions surround Uyghur woman’s sudden death: A police officer who confirmed the death of 29-year-old Uyghur woman Nurimangul Hashim suggested she may have died after being dealt a fatal blow by another policeman, not a heart attack as the official account stated. Hashim had collapsed over her husband’s body, who had died in detention, and was being interrogated by police when she died.
Whistleblowing Uyghur surgeon speaks truth to horror: Activist and whistleblower Enver Tohti speaks out about his experience forced to harvest organs from almost-dead prisoners as a surgeon in Xinjiang, where China continues to be plagued by allegations of forced organ harvesting and trafficking, despite officially banning the use of transplants from executed prisoners.
Tibetans from Europe find China’s visa-free policy not so free: Four ethnic Tibetan travelers with EU passports say they were questioned for hours upon arrival in China – and two were ultimately deported – despite Beijing’s visa-free policy for citizens of several European countries for visits of up to 15 days.
Uyghur butcher served 7 years in jail for urging friends not to drink alcohol or smoke: Mahmudjan Muqeddem, 46, who hails from the Tawaqchi community of Xaneriq village, was released on April 11, the first time that one of the roughly 100 jailed Uyghur residents from Xaneriq village had been released alive.
China’s Reach & Internal Control 中国: 内控与外扩
No more facial scans needed at check-in, China tells hotels: The authorities seem to be rolling back mandatory facial recognition scans at hotel check-in, although it is unclear why. Some report hotels conducting scans anyway, while others say surveillance is so widespread that the change has no real effect.
Hong Kong schools ban books, warn teachers not to get 'political': Hong Kong schools have been banning books, warning teachers not to express "political" views, training students how to raise the Chinese flag correctly, and screening patriotic films, according to online documents that reveal what the city's "national security education" program looks like on the ground.
Hong Kong audit watchdog slams Post Office, dental service for failing to safeguard national security: Hong Kong’s Audit Commission took Hongkong Post to task for failing to include national security clauses in its contracts with stamp designers, and also singled out the omission in the Department of Health’s contracts to provide dental services for the elderly.
Hong Kong’s anti-terror hotline received over 28,000 messages since June 2022 launch, police say: Police said that public vigilance against terrorism increased as the authorities heightened promotion and educational efforts, and encouraged residents to report suspicious activity.
International Responses 国际反应
New Laws and Guidelines From EU and ILO Target Forced Labor with Eye on Xinjiang: The European Parliament voted this week in favor of regulations to ban the sale, import, and export of goods made using forced labor, widely seen as responding to numerous reports of forced labor in China, particularly in Xinjiang.
Related: European parliament passes law banning forced labor products. The Forced Labour Regulation will allow authorities in EU member states and the European Commission to investigate suspicious goods, supply chains and manufacturers. Products they determine to be made with forced labor cannot be sold in the EU, including online, and will be confiscated at the border.
US has seen evidence of attempts by China to influence election, says Blinken: During his visit to Beijing, the U.S. Secretary of State raised election interference with Xi. Blinken also warned that Chinese companies will face new sanctions if they do not stop supplying material and equipment to the Russian arms industry.
US Congress seeks to change Hong Kong office address to Jimmy Lai Way: Two U.S. congressmen have introduced a bill to rename the street in front of Hong Kong’s de facto embassy in Washington as "Jimmy Lai Way" in honor of the jailed media entrepreneur.
US report claims evidence of arbitrary detention, rights abuses in Hong Kong, as city gov’t refutes ‘bias’ and ‘smears’: The 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the US Department of State claimed that there were credible reports of arbitrary arrest and detention or detainees in Hong Kong under the Beijing-imposed national security law and other legislation.