Senior Manager in the Asia Regional Program at
@NEDemocracy
. Interested in China/中国, human rights, IR, Catholicism, trail running. Views expressed are my own.
My
@ForeignPolicy
op-ed is now out!
I am one of those people who has been concerned with the deterioration of
#US
-
#China
ties, but I also think the critique of the very hawkish position is likely to fail without a strong human rights strategy.
Thread🧵
#ICYMI
"The Sunday rally was the first of its kind in Hong Kong to express solidarity with the
#Uighurs
in Xinjiang.
Organisers set up a banner on a stage that read “Today Xinjiang, tomorrow Hong Kong, release
#IlhamTohti
.”
Amnesty International: 'The world needs more people like Mesut Ozil'
@amnesty
’s William Nee said: “This is one of the biggest human rights crises in the world today. To have sports stars talk about this – it brings the message to a new audience.”
Hong Kong protests: did police use Israel’s Cellebrite hacking tech to crack protesters’ smartphones?
Former
#HongKong
police detective says the force has used the company’s data-extraction technology for about seven years
via
@John_F_Power
@SCMPNews
Arsenal distance themselves from Mesut Özil comments on
#Uighurs
’ plight
Midfielder highlighted persecution of Muslims in China
Club says it ‘does not involve itself in politics’ in statement
@MesutOzil1088
Beijing constructs an 'independence' plot for Hong Kong protests through information operations
Very important post on how mainland media framed the protests in terms of violence and independence.
via
@hongkongfp
Jimmy Lai can't be left to spend rest of his life in prison
All who share his
#Catholic
faith and his belief in freedom, democracy and human dignity have to pray and work for his release
Great piece by
@benedictrogers
"China's growing footprint abroad, and its tendency to use threats, corruption, & coercion to get what it wants, means that journalists in countries with more robust media freedoms now have lots of fodder for China-related stories, without leaving home"
"The US will step up its crackdown on China’s surveillance industry this week, with further restrictions on the supply of American tech that will be in effect from Jan 6"
New Trump Ruling Limits AI Surveillance Exports Over China Military Fears
@UKZak
”And we [
@hk_watch
] never imagined that, even though we can no longer go to Hong Kong, it would come to us in such large numbers. I now spend most weeks meeting recently arrived Hong Kongers in London” -
@benedictrogers
@UCANews
It’s been two years since my family and I left
#HongKong
😓
Here was our last photo before we left.
I hope all HKers are doing well, whether people abroad or those who decided to stay 🙏
.
@Amnesty
is concerned to learn of the arrest of human rights monitors
@RobertJonGodden
& Jennifer Wang on the morning of 18 Nov as they attempted to exit a police cordon set up around protests centered at the Hong Kong PolyU
Photo credit:
@ivanabreubr
BREAKING: House church leader Wang Yi - who was profiled in
@iandenisjohnson
's book The Souls of China - was sentenced to 9 years in prison on the charges of inciting subversion of state power & illegal business operations; deprived political rights 3 years & 50,000 assets seized
Pastor Wang Yi sentenced to 9 yrs imprisonment today after a secret trial. Pure unjust persecution 很邪恶不公义的判决!王怡牧师被判有期徒刑9年,剥夺政治权利3年,罚款5万。这地地道道的是宗教迫害。表明习政府与普世价值决然为敌。但是上帝在中国的教会不仅不会被吓到消灭,反而会加倍增长。
"Many Americans don’t even bother to vote, while Hong Kongers shame us by enduring tear gas and threats of job dismissals in hopes of attaining what we take for granted."
Well said
@NickKristof
!👏
This piece by Cai Xia, former professor in the Central Party School, is one of the best glimpses into the complicated dynamics regarding elite politics of the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping that I've read in a long time.
@ForeignAffairs
Every American should watch this video.
One can disagree with the views of
@IlhanMN
, but it's absolutely unacceptable to create an environment that contributes to this sort of hate against Muslim Americans -- and Muslims globally.
We must create a welcoming enrolment for all.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) plays a horrific death threat she received following Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) recent Islamophobic attacks on her.
Warning: It's incredibly graphic.
Very powerful open letter to the
#IOC
from Peter Dahlin 👇
For people unaware, Peter was put in secret detention and forced to give a confession on Chinese state-run TV, so he has some valuable insights into what
#PengShuai
may be experiencing
@iocmedia
“Just under one year ago, on Dec. 10, China arrested our colleague Michael Kovrig in Beijing.
Since that time, Michael...has remained in detention without being allowed to see a lawyer or family member”
Pretty clearly a violation of China’s own CPL, no?
File this under "news you may have missed": China and Turkey signed an extradition treaty.
中华人民共和国和土耳其共和国引渡条约
Global Times notes it is for counter-terrorism purposes:
I would urge
@elonmusk
and
@Twitter
to please take action against this sort of abuse.
It's worth noting that Vicky Xu has been a brave journalist and researcher in documenting human rights abuses against
#Uyghurs
and other predominantly Muslim people in the PRC
“How can a regime that declares war against constitutional multiparty democracy, separation of powers, elections, an independent judiciary, human rights, civil society, academic freedom & an independent media be a friend to democracies?” -
@benedictrogers
“It is surely rare to see a [mainland] human rights lawyer attending public protests in Hong Kong, especially when the crackdown on human rights lawyers in China has been increasingly harsh” -
@dorianelau
of
@amnesty
This is one brave man. 👍
One of the world's best-known rugby players has become the latest sports star to criticise China for its treatment of the Muslim Uighur population
In a Twitter post,Sonny Bill Williams also criticised others for choosing "economic benefits over humanity"
“Yet here was a Republican candidate back in 2007 repeatedly rebuking voters on waterboarding and standing up for the rights of suspected terrorists from Al Qaeda That’s what political courage and moral leadership look like” -
@NickKristof
#RIPJohnMCain
I must say that I’ve increasingly admired Joe Walsh over the past few years.
IMO, the survival of American democracy depends on people willing to buck powerful forces for ideological conformity on their own side — and a willingness to admit the “other” side sometimes has merit.
Eight years ago when I was in Congress and
@BarackObama
was President, I would have reflexively railed against him for saying this. Now I agree with him. And thank him for saying it. Because now I understand it. Barack Obama has always gotten it. He hasn’t changed. I have.
After 7 years, today was my last day working at
@amnesty
.
I’ll soon be moving back to the US for personal reasons (timing is not ideal 🤦♂️)
It’s been an honor to work for human rights & a pleasure to meet so many great people in the Amnesty movement,HRDs, partner NGOs, & media!
Excellent summary of the human rights situation right now in
#HongKong
by
@klustout
👇
It underscores the importance of going after the HK Alliance —the group that organized the
#Tiananmen
vigils each June 4th, which attracted 100,000+ & was a crucial event in HK’s civil society
"We are in a very deep winter for civil society groups."
#HongKong
's national security police have arrested four leaders of the HK Alliance, the group behind the city's annual June 4 vigil.
They were arrested after refusing to comply with a data request made under the NSL.
Think about this: one of China's most promising feminists & a budding labour activist -
#YueXin
- has been disappeared for over a year now.
This is why no sane HKer wants to be 送中ed!
For further info on how this can happen see
@michaelcaster
's piece:
"Bachelet said...she has been under 'tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish'"
But, I humbly suggest,
@mbachelet
, that the pressure is not the same.
Victims pressing for justice is NOT equivalent to perpetrators of abuse pressing for a cover up
Ironically, the Simpsons episode that this cartoon is sourced from — Bart vs. Australia — is an episode designed to make fun of America’s ignorant and arrogant nationalism. 🤦🏼♂️
Just got
@davidfrum
’s must read book Trumpocalypse
This jumped out at me:
“Embedded in Trumpism is the distinction between people and ‘The People’. Not all people belong to The People.”
As a China watcher & observer of the Communist Party, this rhetoric is all too familiar 🧐
Preliminary thought on the UN
#Xinjiang
report, although very late, literally the last minute, the human rights analysis presented and subsequent concerns raised based on the government's own laws, policies, and statements will be very hard for the Chinese government to refute.
"This is extremely erroneous action which has shown disrespect of China’s sovereignty and interference in China’s internal affairs." -foreign ministry spokeswoman
Meeting
@joshuawongcf
on German(!) soil is interference in *China's* internal affairs? 🧐
NEW: My
@Diplomat_APAC
op-ed is now out:
Xi Jinping Has Critics in China. They Have Paid a Steep Price
Human rights defenders in China face arrest and lengthy detention for calling out Xi’s mistakes
A UK citizen [
@benedictrogers
] in the UK (!) has been threatened by
#HK
authorities with a fine and 3 years to life in prison if he does not take down his website [
@hk_watch
] & stop advocacy for human rights!
Alarming to see the global reach of the NSL!
As a Catholic who loves Francis and the encyclical
#FratelliTutti
, I couldn't agree more with
@benedictrogers
's piece below, & the sense of being "heartbroken".
There's also an added sense of irony with respect to the human rights crisis facing
#Uyghurs
“This was awesome. If
@ParisHilton
hadn’t come out and said something [about abuse in treatment centres], most of us would have stayed hidden...our families couldn’t heal and Utah couldn’t heal from this.
This was a big scar on Utah. And Paris exposed it”
'Prisoners of conscience': Jimmy Lai, Joshua Wong among
#HongKong
activists nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Media mogul Jimmy Lai, Joshua Wong, Gwyneth Ho, Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan were nominated by 15 academics from 10 countries
via
@hkfp
Chinese Lawyer For
#HongKong
12 Detainee Targeted For Investigation
Lu Siwei's law firm has been ordered to submit details of all of his recent cases for 'review,' in a move linked to his hiring by a Hong Kong family
I was just checking to see which US pols had RTed this bombshell NYT piece on Xi’s role in Xinjiang crisis.
@marcorubio
did on the GOP side, & on the Dem side I see
@ewarren
did 👇-the only 2020 candidate (if I’m not mistaken).
This will have to be a topic in upcoming debates.
The Chinese government’s cruel, bigoted treatment of Muslims and ethnic minorities is a horrifying human rights violation.
We must stand up to hatred and extremism at home—and around the world.
Doctor who exposed Sars cover-up is under house arrest in China, family confirms
Exclusive: Dr Jiang Yanyong’s movements restricted after he wrote to authorities about 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
This is an excellent thread, but I think there's a darker possibility: that Xi did foresee a war, Xi signed off on it (ie..asking for after Olympics & knew of the objective of regime change), knew Putin was capable of indiscriminate death (Syria), but Xi was willing to stomach it
1/ China likely failed to predict the war. Even many Russian senior intel & mil officials, as well as lots of top Russian experts didn't seem to foresee the war. Given deep distrust of US, China probably dismissed the intel shared by US as psychological warfare to drive wedge.
If you’re in Hong Kong and are ambivalent about going to the
#Tiananmen
vigil, consider this: two
#Uighur
officials will be in prison for eleven years merely for watching a documentary about the crackdown.
The past has not passed.
“The source said that Hesen & Ahmet were eventually tried & convicted [sentenced to 11 years] for having “watched a documentary in English” about the June 4, 1989 military crackdown on the student-led pro-democracy movement centered on
#Tiananmen
Square”
BREAKING: Labour activist
#ChenWeixiang
, best known for helping sanitation workers defend their rights, was taken away by police in Guangzhou on Tuesday, 17 Dec
2 of Chen’s associates at Heart Sanitation were detained or vanished at the same time as Chen
If only there was a way to visualize Beijing's condescension towards Hong Kong and unwillingness to listen.... 🧐🙄
China interrupts Hong Kong pop star during UN speech
via
@jgriffiths
@hoccgoomusic
PLEASE HELP. Yesterday I held small peaceful human rights protest with Uyghur flag outside London Chinese Embassy. Chinese Embassy reported me to police as BOMB THREAT, they produced fake email ''This is Drew Pavlou today I will blow up the Embassy for Uyghurs - regards Drew.’’
.
@benedictrogers
on the implications of China's new interpretation of
#HongKong
's National Security Law:
"The principles of a fair trial, innocence before being proven guilty, an independent judiciary, and the right to legal defense have been torn up."
Scenes from the
#HongKong
airport, typically one of the liveliest in the world 👇
Airport and airline employees seem to significantly outnumber passengers 🤣
Farewell all my HK friends — sorry I had to pass on meeting so many people for a meal/coffee/drink before leaving 😪
This is absurdly bad advice.
"Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger has said Ukraine should accept giving up part of its territory to reach a peace deal with Russia, and end the now three-month-long war immediately."
My new
@Diplomat_APAC
op-ed is now out!
At Geneva next week, the Chinese government will try to convince a U.N. committee that it is a paragon of economic, social, and cultural rights.
A quick thread...
1/x
#China
New Heilongjiang notice out on criminal punishments related to the
#coronavirus
.
Most shockingly, it can involve the
#deathpenalty
, (but I doubt that would happen in practice) more realistically, there are heavy punishments for creating rumors or attacks on the system. 1/3
"Maybe the most important lesson to take...is the steep strategic cost of America’s fierce partisan polarization. Decisions in Afghanistan by GOP & Dem alike were driven much more by domestic political competition than by realities inside🇦🇫" -
@davidfrum
@BenjySarlin
@SykesCharlie
My parents, who live in AZ, were/are McCain Republicans who voted for Hobbs because they "didn't want to empower the nuts in the Arizona GOP should Lake win" they told me....FWIW 🤣
NEW: CHRD urgently urges the German government not to return activist
#LiuBing
(刘冰)to
#China
, where he is at risk of torture & ill-treatment, as well as detention & unfair trial.
Liu has commemorated
#Tiananmen
&
#LinZhao
, & has taken part in protests.
We’re in a national crisis. The House and Senate should get to work.
@BillKristol
has the same reaction of incredulity I had been I heard the Senate would be at recess until January 19th, although this is better stated
via
@BulwarkOnline
Just started reading Dennis W. H. Kwok and Elizabeth Donkervoort’s new paper: The Risks for International Business under the Hong Kong National Security Law
Certainly a must-read for anyone in business,
#bizhumanrights
, or seeking to understand the
#NSL
!
“In her visit, Bachelet had the opportunity to confront this Orwellian police state. Instead, she repeated talking points from China itself, offering soft words that do not match the thousands of testimonies of survivors and families in the diaspora”
Yes, the "Uyghur Genocide" is fake...except for satellite imagery of camps/prisons, UN OHCHR assessment, WGAD opinions, reports from Amnesty & HRW, testimony from Uyghur/Kazakh victims, videos on CCTV with victims, leaked gov. documents: victim name lists, speeches, white papers.
EU, alarmed by rising violence in
#HongKong
, calls for ‘complete inquiry’ into protests and police behaviour
EU 🇪🇺spokeswoman says such an investigation is ‘a critical element in de-escalation efforts’
But hours later, Liang’s media accreditation to cover the NPC was revoked,according to one of her colleagues.
By Tuesday night, her personal Weibo page had been taken down & search results of her name on the social media platform were censored
@SCMP_news
This is a great interview over so many topics, but one thing that stands out is how
@davidfrum
emphasizes how political solutions (and political parties) must change as problems on the ground evolve.
The idea of actually listening to the problems millennials face is smart too.
On this day in 2016 I was on
#RTHK
’s show “The Pulse” with Albert Ho and Steve Vines.
Ho is in prison, Vines fled HK for fear of his safety, and RTHK has radically changed.
The nonstop nostalgia of Facebook “memories” must be somewhat traumatic for many HKers.
Announcement: I'm pleased to have joined
@CHRDnet
as the new Research and Advocacy Coordinator!
Please follow CHRD and my colleague
@ReneeXiaCHRD
for updates and analysis about human rights issues in China.
I hope we can contribute towards positive change!
In this era of sometimes mindless US-China rivalry (not to downplay legitimate issues), great to see moments of humanity & sportswomenship like this at the Olympics
Guan Chenchen wins balance beam gold at the Tokyo Olympics as Simone Biles claims bronze
"Among the limits placed on the interview were that all questions had to be submitted in advance and that Peng would answer only in Chinese, with Mr Wang present throughout the interview to translate."
Note Peng's fluent English ability:
“
@709liwenzu
the wife of a detained Chinese lawyer
#WangQuanzhang
set off on Wednesday on a march of more than 100 km from Beijing to Tianjin, where she believes her husband is being held incommunicado, in a bid to force authorities to explain his arrest”
Last
#Lantau
Run today 😪
Various permutations of this local loop overlooking the ocean have brought me great joy over the last 10 years
Leaving
#HongKong
next week
It’s just outrageous that
#China
’s most prominent
#MeToo
advocate has been simply disappeared like this 👇
“BBC Eye investigates the disappearance of Sophia Huang Xueqin, a high-profile feminist journalist who kick-started China’s
#MeToo
movement”
Prominent Uighur Writer - Nurmuhammad Tohti - Dies at Chinese Internment Camp
“The truth is that they put a 70-year old man, my grandfather,with diabetes and heart disease inside a concentration camp, and they cannot deny this,”she [granddaughter] said
“Calmness and rationality, instead of moves that pour oil on the flame and escalate tensions, are needed to resolve complex problems, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday”
Calmness? 🧐
For Ukrainians facing death and displacement, isn’t this obnoxious gaslighting?
Today’s arrests in Hong Kong signal an ever darker turn under the leadership of John Lee. The arrest of Cardinal Zen sends a chilling message for the prospects of freedom of religion in Hong Kong, and ironically proves that his warnings about the dangers of the CCP were prophetic
Prominent Hong Kong barrister Margaret Ng - a trustee of a now-defunct protester relief fund - has been arrested, HKFP has learned.
Scholar Hui Po-keung, 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen & singer-activist Denise Ho were also reportedly arrested. In full:
Chinese activists detained after sharing censored
#coronavirus
material on crowdsourcing site Github
The three were contributors to a project that aimed to preserve material censors had tried to wipe from the web
Serious question for policymakers.
How can any government seriously push for an investment agreement with China when the operating context is such that a company from its jurisdiction can be completely airbrushed out of existence, 1984-style, in such an extralegal fashion?
As of yesterday, H&M no longer exists on Chinese search engines, e-commerce sites, ride-hailing apps or maps.
This level of erasure of a global business is astounding even for China
Via
@evawxiao
A Bloomberg journalist asked China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s views on the Australian Open allowing “Where is Peng Shuai” T-shirts, and Zhao said:
“Is Bloomberg a serious media outlet?”
“You’re really interested in this sensational news?”
Anti-Americanism in Chinese state media has increased notably over the past few years, but this seems new.
The Global Times calls the US the “world’s biggest Karen” and accuses Washington of “drama queen behavior” 😂😓
“…but I am saying that the killing of this newspaper, the jailing of Lai and the death of media freedom have ramifications for religious freedom. When you silence freedom of expression, inevitably you undermine freedom of religion.” -
@benedictrogers
Shocking new details on the torture of human rights lawyer
#WangQuanzhang
:
"After being slapped in the face for hours, he was compelled to accept an affidavit stating that he tried to subvert the gov by receiving funds from abroad"
h/t
@StuartR92034479
“Settling accounts after the harvest” 秋后算账 — the time honored tradition of the Chinese Communist Party of settling scores retroactively against protestors once an immediate crisis has subsided.
See the detentions of people who made videos in
#Xinjiang
.
Chinese state media hits out at Facebook for ‘suppressing voices of justice’ in Hong Kong
People’s Daily says Facebook gave ‘rioters special privileges to disseminate fake news’, while Global Times calls for it to be put on unreliable entity list
🧐
“I humbly suggest to the men cloistered in the Vatican, secured by home comforts and freedom, that they ought to listen to the two Salesian cardinals from Asia [Bo and Zen].” -
@benedictrogers
#HongKong
#Myanmar
G7 leaders must prepare a Carbis Bay Plan for Xinjiang and Hong Kong in Cornwal
Excellent commentary by
@benedictrogers
, giving an overview of the Uyghur Tribunal & HK developments
Love it or hate it, a very consequential speech from
@SecPompeo
:
"Maybe it’s time for a new grouping of like-minded nations, a new alliance of democracies."
I think anyone interested in the GOP primaries should strongly consider the views of
@SimonWDC
, who convincingly argues that the Democratic coalition/Biden are stronger than they may appear — and that MAGA extremism, as perceived by many voters, will help turn out the vote
With Pope Benedict XVI trending, I’d like to take this opportunity to pray for him & recommend his book Jesus of Nazareth, which in my view,is one of the best spiritual books of all time (which would appeal not just to Catholics, but Christians, even agnostics, New Agers as well)
I’ve been listening to
@BulwarkOnline
podcast &
@SykesCharlie
for 2+ years, and this, in my opinion, is the most important episode ever.
In all honesty, every American should listen to what Fanone has to say about the selflessness of being a police officer and January 6th🇺🇸
"2016 was simple. I was a single-issue voter. And my issue was law enforcement." That's why Michael Fanone voted for Trump - and why he walked away. A special episode of The Bulwark Podcast with
@SykesCharlie
from last night's live event!
The wife of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang -
@709liwenzu
- gives German Chancellor Angela Merkel a letter, saying, “...it would be great if you can ask whether Wang Quanzhang is still alive to the Chinese leader in your meetings”.
Wow.
Announcement: today is my first day doing a new job -- Business and Human Rights Strategy Advisor/Analyst at
@amnesty
!
I'll still be doing some China-related work - but for media comments, please contact
@patrickpoon
.
Eager to connect with people involved in
#bizhumanrights
!
“Now, the harassment of
#LiuXia
’s family who remain in China must end too. It would be most callous of the Chinese authorities to use Liu Xia’s relatives to put pressure on Liu Xia to prevent her from speaking out in future.” -
@patrickpoon