China is a revisionist power. My new report is titled Global South with Chinese characteristics because this is what’s in Beijing’s imagination. Here presenting a new dataset:
Chinese in China are so divided towards Israel-Palestine. CCP backs Palestine on many fronts, official narrative is anti-Israel largely because of pro-US stance. But Chinese in China are anti-Palestine because they are islamophobic, prefer "non-barbaric"Israelis. It's fascinating
A Hong Kong student in 🇯🇵returned home to renew ID card to find herself under arrest by NSL- over posts on Facebook - her passport is confiscated. Many cases like these no longer reported by international news, thanks to Prof
@tomoko_ako
for voicing out.
I have this urge to retweet all these videos because some people who follow me have told me in my face CCP’s iron fist is strong and the Chinese people will not revolt - to which I’ve always insisted, we are not stupid, people know this is a bad regime, there’s a way.
Chinese PEOPLE put their blood and sweat into their economy, it’s their labour that lifted them out of poverty, their hard work that created economic growth. Stop reducing role of the people, that’s giving more power to this useless regime.
China has been manipulating the media sector in Kyrgyzstan for over 20 years. We started an investigation last year exploring PRC tactics, narratives in pursuit and their effectiveness. Today, our first report is released:
China will try its best to crush democratic ambitions in Venezuela to maintain its payoff from the elites it invested in, just as it has been legitimizing the Taliban in Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul. China does not care how the masses under the rules of these tyrant suffer
there is no "coexistence" when it comes to China's approach to global affairs, Beijing does not compromise nor tolerate existence of views and practice inconvenient to its interest.
China thinks Russia’s War in Ukraine is ok as long as it’s part of the anti-West narrative. China will not tolerate Russia going on a full “revival of hegemony in Eurasia”, offering to support territorial integrity of Kazakhstan reflects exactly this thinking
🇨🇳🇰🇿Xi Jinping: "No matter how the international situation changes, we will continue to resolutely support Kazakhstan in protecting its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity"
(1/3) Russia’s militarisation in
#Kazakhstan
is going to have explosive consequences in the global oil and gas market, if Tokayev finally gives in. For past couple of years, Russia has been trying to control China’s oil and gas purchases from Central Asia.
Thanks Prof
@fangkc
for this piece of work.
When a former colleague told me they have decided to go back to China, "to understand from the ground perspective", to "engage in exchange", all the best with that:
Xi Jinping congratulates Maduro for successfully reelecting as President of Venezuela. Joining Putin, Miguel Diaz-Canel, Daniel Ortega, nothing to see here, just a dictator's club.
Blaming Ukraine for moving closer to EU/NATO thus deserving of Russian invasion is no different than blaming rape victim of dressing provocatively - in both cases the provocation was never the point, the aggressor will always be the aggressor
I got my hands on a thousand files about training programs that China offers to foreign government officials. For
@FikraForum
@WashInstitute
I argue there are clear evidence revealing Beijing intention to export Chinese governance preferences & practices.
Kazakhstan, world's largest uranium producer, started delivering nuclear fuel rods to China.
For years, Kazakhstan refused to sell raw uranium to China, but demanded process tech. Now, a Chinese-owned factory sits in East Kazakhstan, producing rods for Chinese clients.
There seems to be a pattern emerging with Chinese ambassadors in Nepal. Felt like the right time again to remind everyone that the Nepali journalist who first broke the story about Chinese encroachment was also bullied by the embassy, and later found dead.
This is a reminder to be sensitive and thoughtful when talking to your Hong Kong friends today & in the coming weeks as we approach the 4th year losing our home. It may not look like we are suffering because we are all v strong people, but we are.
Once again, in light of Tajikistan’s invasion of Kyrgyzstan, let’s separate the Rahmon regime from the country. Tajikistan is a lovely place, Tajik people are kind, the Rahmon regime on the other hand is sick to the core.
How dependent is too dependent on China? With a Tang Dynasty themed Xi'an Summit, Central Asian elites ought to understand, the symbolism, global role & trajectory of regional relations with China.
My short ✍🏻 for
@AtlanticCouncil
👇🏻
China's influence operations in Kyrgyzstan are its most aggressive and longest-standing in Central Asia. I mapped this in latest
@IRIglobal
report. For the first time, I publicly write about the 3 United Front senior agents working in Bishkek:
Xi said no military action re Taiwan, Xi said there’s freedom and prosperity in Xinjiang, Xi said Sino-British Joint Declaration is just a historical document, Xi said 9 dash line, now tell me is there a pattern here ?
There are 3 pillars to China’s pursue of global leadership: Economic Power, Military Power and *Information Power*.
In this new report for
@IRIglobal
,
@MareikeOhlberg
& I mapped Beijing’s distinct approach to manipulating information in the Indo-Pacific.
It was clear Xi Jinping visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan last month to lobby for these votes. The two countries abstained from voting many times before, now.. disappointingly, are supportive of China’s stance.
#HRC51
| Draft resolution A/HRC/51/L.6 on holding a debate on the situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of
#China
, was REJECTED.
Collecting CCP disinfo about nation-wide protest:
-insists it’s small scale
-it’s foreign influence
-Chinese rich young kids are spoilt/ ungrateful
-bash western media for saying China has no freedom of speech
-everything is good inside China, outsiders shut up
今日,我廿八歲🎂so happy to be spending this birthday week in Berlin with close friends who flew to see me from other parts of Europe, to have learnt and inspired by colleagues who came to
#CITW2022
今年,祝我易發✨
(2/3) Russia has been trying to do this via pushing Kazakhstan to agree on a regional EAEU standard tariff on oil and gas prices, which gives Russia price-setting control over oil and gas trade between China & Central Asia. Both Nazarbayev & Tokayev had been strongly against this
Those confused over China’s “Ukraine peace deal” might find it useful to know this Chinese phase 指鹿為馬, literal translation as “point at a deer call it a horse”, this phase originate from history where those in power twists the reality to test loyalty of their subordinates
You’d think as a Chinese living in Central Asia 4+ years, working on China issues, have access to the Chinese community, would qualify me an expert on Sinophobia in the region. Apparently not, because some European profs insists to argue against it. Talk about living in a bubble
(3/3) For Russia, this gives huge bargaining power when negotiating its own oil and gas deals with China. Huge leverage. For Kazakhstan, this is trading off economic independence and getting somewhat economic predictability, which still depends if Russia can handle global prices.
Delighted to announce I have joined
@ACGlobalChina
@AtlanticCouncil
as nonresident fellow! In addition to China-Central Asia, I will start studying new forms of Chinese overseas security activities, with a focus on private security companies, dual-use tech, info ops, and more…
Always happy getting to talk China in Central Asia. The hearing
@USCC_GOV
is now online, watch & read the statements in link. Really grateful for
@DerekScissors1
's provocative question that challenged us to think harder about why Central Asia is important.
I admit I was wrong to say that Xi didn't gain from his Kazakhstan🇰🇿 & Uzbekistan🇺🇿 trip. Given new evidence (
#HRC51
vote), I was wrong to judge based on lack of signatures when Xi was in🇰🇿. I was wrong to judge the $15 billion deal Xi signed with🇺🇿 as just recycling old deals.
Let's agree that the Belt and Road Initiative is just one piece of Chinese foreign policy. It’s not going away, it’s being improved and integrated into other efforts that come together to expand the role of China in the world.
My take for
@NikkeiAsia
In December 2021 I dragged
@TUmarov
to Bishkek to talk seriously about opening a China think tank on the ground. Unfortunately due to many political reasons, that didn’t happen & I also couldn’t stay. Please be informed that, after 4 years, I’ve sadly moved out of Central Asia.
Graphic depictions of sexual assault, racist imagery & life-threatening intimidation are a growing part of the CCP’s toolkit of digital transnational repression. Our deep dive into Twitter info ops the CCP is running against women of Asian descent in 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇦🇺
A detailed look at bilateral documents from Xi'an Summit. 🇰🇬Kyrgyzstan, highlights:
1️⃣New-era Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
2️⃣Kyrgyzstan pledges full support to China over Xinjiang issues. Combat East Turkestan issues. (no other Central Asian country said this)
South Korea National Intelligence Service suspects Chinese agencies are behind the operation of fake websites posing as well-known South Korean news outlets to spread propaganda. NIS busted and closed down 38 such websites.
Китай манипулирует сектором СМИ в Кыргызстане уже более 20 лет. В прошлом году мы н��чали расследование, изучая действия КНР, навязанные нарративы и их эффективность. Сегодня опубликован наш первый отчет:
So glad to have spoken to
@goldkorn
on China in Afghanistan & Central Asia. There is this assumption that Kyrgyz, Kazakhs & Tajiks in Central Asia care / should care about their counterparts in Xinjiang - it's a mistake.
With 4 years of working on China-Central Asia from the ground, there are a lot of granular details I have never found a home for. This year from here in Tokyo I will be writing a 10-part series for
@JamestownTweets
Watch this space, first piece out soon👇
A detailed look at bilateral statements from Xi'an Summit. Starting 🇰🇿Kazakhstan, highlights:
1️⃣New industrial transfer program signed. In 2015, 56 of such projects were signs, over half are completed/ in operation.
2️⃣China to support Kazakh businesses to do business in China.
Decolonizing Central Asia from Russia is the only way forward for the region to make sense of oppressive policies suffered by fellow Central Asians in Xinjiang (East Turkestan), to see they are colonized by Han Chinese, Russia's War in Ukraine unintentionally speed this up for us
After 15 years of negotiation, China signed the biggest nuclear energy deal in Kazakhstan recently. CGN now reportedly has accumulative 30,000 tons equity reserves of uranium in Kazakhstan, plus fuel assembly line
A new dataset of Chinese government files & report coming this week present another hard evidence demonstrating that China is a revisionist power, seeking to transform the global order. Join us tomorrow morning 9AM ET
🧵
Zeng Yuxuan, a 23yo mainland Chinese Juris Doctor student at CUHK, received 6 months of imprisonment over guilty plea of “attempt to carry out act or acts with seditious intent” for planning to display a banner with the image of
#PillarofShame
on June 4 this year.
You can call it post-war reconstruction but reality it's Chinese thinking, "how to profit from Taliban-led Afghanistan?" Because women's rights don't matter, ethnic minorities like Hazaras don't matter... Also, Chinese expert: "We didn't see massacres or women get abused"
Afghan Taliban’s military offensive has been progressing faster than expected. China could contribute to post-war reconstruction, and push the BRI projects when safety and stability are restored: experts
A Hong Kong student in 🇯🇵returned home to renew ID card to find herself under arrest by NSL- over posts on Facebook - her passport is confiscated. Many cases like these no longer reported by international news, thanks to Prof
@tomoko_ako
for voicing out.
Train with more than 1000 ton humanitarian aid departed China's Xinjiang. Include naan,milk tea powder, cotton-padded clothes, cotton shoes and blankets.Since July 2021, the China-Afg trains carried more than 2,600 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Afg.
@IeaForeign1
@QaharBalkhi
I get asked lots why I’ve been staying in Bishkek & not visiting home at all. Situation has been deteriorating, it never stopped despite less international attention. It’s an immense mental burden for us, heartaches with each news, can’t bear watch Hong Kong dies with my own eyes
This really should be a bigger deal than it is.
Opposition to a government =/= Opposition to a country.
Dictatorships call their opposition "terrorist" because they claim the whole country to themselves. Be mindful of language
Hey
@wsj
this might seem like a small thing but it's not
I doubt
@ZhouFengSuo
would describe himself as "anti-China"
Instead, I suspect he would describe himself as "anti-CCP"
In fact, the former framing parrots CCP propaganda
@ZhouFengSuo
, please correct me if I'm wrong
All the China in Afghanistan propaganda lately is just off the charts, while I sincerely hope for prosperity in Afghanistan, banking on China brings a whole new set of long term problems that the Taliban leadership just isn’t ready for
On Monday, China congratulates Venezuela on the successful holding of the presidential election and on the re-election of
@NicolasMaduro
as president. China highly values the development of bilateral relations and is eager to collaborate with Venezuela to further strengthen their
People say Chinese language is easy to learn because there is "no grammar", well, yes, the Communist Chinese language in PRC has no grammar - its characters, vocabularies and sentence structures are extremely watered down. Want a challenge? Go learn Chinese in Taiwan
Scholars/ journalists who work on China’s global issues are not to blame for the rise of anti-Chinese/ Asian violence. Racial issues/ white supremacy is the only problem here, anyone can be a target. China’s assertiveness is real. United Front Work is real.
Люди из Центральной Азии восхваляют китайцев как "трудолюбивых", но неужели вы думаете, что это естественно для нас? Это видео показывает, как уйгуры спят на работе, на фабрике по переработке хлопка, принадлежащей ханьцам.
Welcoming to our Bishkek office this new book with a chapter by yours truly on the role of historical memories in Chinese foreign policy making in Central Asia.
Book title is “European Union, China and Central Asia: Global and Regional Cooperation in a New Era”
This will make me sound obnoxious to some people, "Hongkongers are so arrogant", but need to flag just how Hong Kong is seriously deteriorating.
Hong Kong was never like authoritarian city-state Singapore, where people can be jailed for what they write online. We were free.
A Hong Kong student in 🇯🇵returned home to renew ID card to find herself under arrest by NSL- over posts on Facebook - her passport is confiscated. Many cases like these no longer reported by international news, thanks to Prof
@tomoko_ako
for voicing out.
China and Tajikistan is conducting a joint anti-terrorism exercise today and tomorrow in Dushanbe, led by respective Ministry of Public Security + Ministry of Internal Affairs. NOT just eyeing Afghanistan, Xi is going to Dushanbe in a month's time for SCO summit
China to mine Kazakhstan's largest tungsten ore mine near the Chinese border - only under 3 hours drive. This is a $260 million project under the China-Kazakhstan industrial transfer plan. CCECC signed on recently as the contractor to build mining facility.
NEW: Chinese interference in Canada? Chinese Canadians say they reported it for years — and were ignored.
"These are not secrets." For the Chinese diaspora, it's been common knowledge. Here's what they say you should know.
@torontostar
#cdnpoli
Everyday I’ll highlight one policy failure of the Chinese Communist Party. First up: Forced Abortions. As late as 2012 we know the case of Feng Jianmei 冯建梅 who were forced by her local officials to abort her 7-month old child because the gov imposed $5600 USD fine on them.
"Central Asia is a beautiful, pretty girl, and there are several good guys around her. The girl thinks who to marry...between the West, Russia, China and Europe - she needs to be cautious." Chinese Professor Li Xin told mass audience in Astana, Kazakhstan
Yes. Having the Global South pledge towards supporting China's reunification has been a new ask since last year. Lip service to the One China policy is no longer enough. This means only one thing.
It’s one thing to uphold the One China policy. But supporting China in reunification?
Anwar tells Li Qiang:
“Malaysia firmly upholds the one-China policy, firmly supports China in achieving national reunification”
Is this the new ask from Beijing?
Hong Kong’s political discourse is dead, but otherwise, the city is virtually the same as in 2019. A financial hub with a relatively free media. Religious tolerance and open internet. It’s also the freest city in China. Let’s not write it off so quickly.
I analysed all of China's renewable projects in Central Asia for Crude Accountability
@Crude_NGO
in this latest publication. Projects are influenced by regional politics + unevenly following international standards, full report + recommendations in link
Thank you
@washingtonpost
for recognising my work as one of the best on political economy in 2020! Delighted to be amongst Albie winners this year, especially as the only Asian female on the list!
As a Global China nerd, travelling to see Chinese infrastructure projects around the is a true privilege. The only thing I wanted to see in Astana, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 this week was the raging reminder of corruption, aka the concrete pillars around the capital:
China’s Port City under construction in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It’s built on reclaimed land, of which the Chinese have full ownership of around 100 hectares.
In other news, the island girl is back by the seaside! Very happy to be here to learn about China’s impacts in 🇱🇰.
(1/5) A senior once compared Chinese Foreign Policy to a snake in the waters. It's fluid, adoptive, and same goes for the behaviour of Chinese firms abroad. We
@dvanderkley
mapped these localisation efforts and trends for
@CarnegieEndow
in this new paper.
New Chinese Ambassador to Turkmenistan Qian Naicheng arrived this week. Qian is the first career intelligence officer/spy (22 yrs
@ILD
) to be granted Ambassadorship in Turkmenistan, everyone else before him (7) were career diplomats from Chinese MFA Eurasia desk. Significant shift
Despite Kazakhstan technically owning 51% of the factory, all of the key technologies and machines inside the factory is still owned by the Chinese side. KZ side in the strictest sense do not own the process tech, it just sits on its territory. Compromise I guess ?
Kazakhstan, world's largest uranium producer, started delivering nuclear fuel rods to China.
For years, Kazakhstan refused to sell raw uranium to China, but demanded process tech. Now, a Chinese-owned factory sits in East Kazakhstan, producing rods for Chinese clients.
The Xi'an Summit concluded with 82 official deliverables and agreements from the Xi'an summit. This is record-breaking in ANY format of exchange that China had before with Central Asian states. Will share some thoughts after I properly go through all documents.
Afghanistan is off the headlines for a long time now, just want to share this PR photo from Kabul's Confucius Institute Chinese cultural event. Yes, there are no females in sight.
Happy to announce my new report "China's Security Management Towards Central Asia" is out! How is China securing its Western Periphery? I documented all these Chinese activities in Central Asia from 1993 - 2020. A thread