Thousands of Hungarians Protest against building a campus of a university from China

On June 5, 2021, over 10,000 people protest the extention of #FudanUniversity from the People's Republic of China (#PRC) to #Budapest, #Hungary.

According to some leaked internal documents, the deal to build a 500,000 sq metre campus with an estimated cost of €1.5bn was signed between Prime Minister #ViktorOrban's government and the Shanghai-based university. It was also revealed that China will lend €1.3bn to Hungary as a loan.

Back in 2019, the University deleted references to "freedom of thought" from its charter.

Moreover, many Hungarians fear that this would become yet another part of China's debt diplomacy. The call for "No Fudan! West, not East!" was displayed at the protest.

Critics call the current pro-China Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban as China and Russia's "Trojan horse" inside the European Union and Nato.

Source: Stand News; AFP #Jun5

https://beta.thestandnews.com/international/%E5%B8%83%E9%81%94%E4%BD%A9%E6%96%AF%E9%80%BE%E8%90%AC%E4%BA%BA%E4%B8%8A%E8%A1%97%E5%8F%8D%E5%B0%8D%E5%BB%BA%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E5%BE%A9%E6%97%A6%E5%88%86%E6%A0%A1-%E5%9C%B0%E6%96%B9%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E6%8A%8A%E8%A1%97%E9%81%93%E6%94%B9%E5%90%8D-%E5%85%89%E5%BE%A9%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E9%81%93

DN Debatt. ”To the People’s Republic of China”

Four leading newspapers from the Nordic countries join in a protest against China’s violation of freedom of the press in Hong Kong. The protest follows the closure of the newspaper Apple Daily and is published on the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party.

It has been too much for a long time. Now, enough is enough. The world can no longer stand idly by as China gradually sucks the air out of freedom of the press in Hong Kong. Our hope that China would live up to its assurances and promises that basic democratic civil liberties would be defended and protected in Hong Kong has been dwindling lately, while our fear and disdain has been growing.

Source: DN SE #Jul01

https://www.dn.se/debatt/to-the-people-s-republic-of-china/

#PRC #Freedom #Press #Newspaper #AppleDaily

#TokyoOlympics #Opening
Japanese Netizens' Different Reception of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the PRC

During the opening ceremony of 2020 Tokyo Olympics on July 23, 2021, the national team of Taiwan was arranged to march in the stadium in an order that follows the alphabetical sequence of "Ta". It means the organizer identifies Taiwan in the name of "Taiwan", instead of the name "Chinese Taipei", imposed by the People's Republic of China (#PRC).

Although the official announcement was still made according to the denomination "Chinese Taipei", the host of the Japanese national TV channnel #NHK used the name "Taiwan".

Moreover, on the platform Niconico where many Japanese netizens streamed the ceremony, enthusiatic reactions appeared with entrancd of Team Taiwan and Team Hong Kong.

Many netizens typed in phrases like "Taiwan Taiwan", "An Independent Country", "Fight on, Taiwan", "Love Taiwan" when seeing Tean Taiwan marched in. Netizens also cheered for the Team Hong Kong: "Fight on Hong Kong", "Hongkongers Persist" and "Fight for freedom"

This contrasts with the reactions the Japanese netizens had towards the PRC team. The netizens critique China's human rights violations and political prosecutions in the past and present. Words like "Tiananmen", "Covid", "massacre" popped up.

It was also reported that China's #Tencent suspended the live streaming after the said NHK host called out "Taiwan". In the end, the Chinese streaming platform failed to show the entrance of Team PRC due to its censorship of the official Japanese host.

Source: Apple Daily, Taiwan; Newstalk; Niconico, Japan #Jul24

https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2021-07-24/609393

https://bit.ly/3xXGSrc

#CCPRules #Infiltration
Concern over ‘#censorship’ rules of New Zealand-Chinese news site Skykiwi.com

//An influential Chinese-language media outlet in #NewZealand warned its users their information could be shared with 'relevant state agencies' if they violated #ChineseLaws.

Skykiwi.com promotes itself as New Zealand’s “most influential” Chinese-language media outlet, with half a million ‘daily average user visits’ to its multi-platform website. Besides providing news coverage, the site also runs message boards where a variety of topics, including current affairs, are discussed. It claims to have 81,000 daily forum users.

...Until July, the terms of service for these forums contained clauses forbidding speech on a range of topics and said that users who violate Chinese laws in their postings could have their information shared with “relevant state agencies,” indicating China’s intelligence apparatus would be able to potentially identify them. It also meant criticism of China’s ruling Communist Party was all but banned.

...A list of forbidden conduct on the forum, as seen last month, includes “leaking state secrets”, “damaging national honour and interests”, “undermining national unity”, inciting “subversion of state power”, "undermining national policies" and promoting “cults”. Virtually identical wording was discovered on the terms of service for China’s state-backed social media platform #WeChat and a list of “prohibited content” outlined by the Chinese Ministry of Culture.//

Source: Newsroom #Sep20
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/concern-over-censorship-rules-of-nz-chinese-news-site

#CCP #PRC #UnitedFront

HK Police Deploys 8,000 Officers on China's National Day, Intimidating Journalists and Civilians

On October 1, 2021, the Hong Kong police force deployed 8,000 officers across the city. The authority claimed that they will patrol in what they claimed to be the "sensitive areas". The police also had the Golden Bauhinia Square and the Exhibition and Convention Centre in Wanchai, where the flag raising ceremony takes place, cordoned off. The day marks the 62th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China (#PRC) by the Chinese Communist Party (#CCP).

In Causeway Bay, around #VictoriaPark and the SOGO Department Store, many uniform police were standing by. Some journalists had been stopped and checked for three times during 45 minutes.

The police asked a journalist, "why are you filming the police instead of the [Chinese] national flag on the National Day?"

Source: InMedia #Oct1

#PoliceState #Regime #NationalDay #Mourning

China at the UN: Choking Civil Society

The Chinese government’s crackdown on freedom of expression, independent thought, and civil society now extends beyond its borders. In the United Nations, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) misuses its seat on the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Committee on Non-governmental Organizations (NGO Committee) to block applications from civil society organizations seeking UN consultative status. Consultative status enables NGOs to participate in UN activities, including hosting side events, gaining access to sessions, speaking at UN events and delivering statements.

Source: Journal of Democracy #Jul31

https://t.co/IgMB3ovTzV

#China #UN #PRC #NGO

#CCPRules #1C1S
#ChineseEmblem Spotted on Hong Kong Government's Websites; Spokesman Cites Requirement from Newly-gazetted Ordinance

On October 8, 2021, the Chinese emblem has been suddenly added to the websites of four official bodies in Hong Kong, namely the Legislative Council, the Chief Executive's Office, the Judiciary and GovHK. Other government websites, such as the websites of the Financial Secretary's Office and the Chief Secretary for Administration's Office, remain unchanged.

The emblem of the #PRC was added to the top left of all four official websites, with the Judiciary website being the largest and clearest.

Of the four websites that have been altered, the emblem on the website of the Chief Executive's Office is the most crude, with blurred lines and fonts, and the emblem appearing pixelized when the page is slightly enlarged. In addition, the new Chinese emblem is slightly larger than the Hong Kong SAR emblem.

Hong Kong government spokesman said the National Flag and Emblem (Amendment) Ordinance was gazetted on 8 October, 2021 and the Chief Executive has amended the requirement to use the emblem on the websites of the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Legislative Council and the Judiciary.

Source: Stand News #Oct8
https://bit.ly/3DlEhtA

#CulturalGenocide
China Pushes 85% of Population Speaking Putonghua by 2025 Even Among Ethnic Minorities

The #PRCgovernment is stepping up efforts to popularize #Putonghua in China, claiming that the use of putonghua remains “unbalanced and inadequate” and needs to be improved to meet the demands of the modern economy.

For the first time, the #PRC government named the two Special Administrative Regions, #HongKong and #Macau, for the new policy.

On November 30, the General Office of the State Council issued a set of new policies on language for #PRC, “Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Comprehensively Strengthening Language and Writing Work in the New Era (關於全面加強新時代語言文字工作的意見)”.

The policy stressed the importance of speaking and using a standardized language, saying that the authorities will “unswervingly" promote the usage among ethnic minorities and in rural areas.

It also set a goal for the national penetration rate of Putonghua to reach 85% by 2025. Along with the 2025 goal, the policy aims to make Putonghua virtually universal by 2035, including in rural areas and among #EthnicMinorities.

The media described the new order as an “aggressive push” to the Chinese regional dialects such as #Cantonese and #Hokkien under even greater pressure, along with #minority languages such as #Tibetan, #Mongolian and #Uyghur.

Critics have protested the changes to the education system and employment requirements that have steadily eroded the role of minority languages. They call it a campaign to eradicate cultures that do not conform with the dominant ethnic group.

#CCP #China #MotherTongue #Language #Assimilation

Source: RFA #Dec2; Bloomberg, #Dec1
https://www.facebook.com/454004001340790/posts/6502480579826405/

#OrganHarvesting
Research: Execution by organ procurement and Breaching the dead donor rule in China

In an academic paper published by Australia-based esearchers Matthew P. Robertson and Jacob Lavee in April 2022, the findings strongly suggest that physicians in the People's Republic of China (#PRC) have participated in executions by organ removal, breaching the #DeadDonorRule.

The study applies computational text analysis to conduct a forensic review of 2,838 papers drawn from a dataset of 124,770 Chinese-language transplant publications.

The algorithm searched for evidence of problematic declarations of brain death during organ procurement. The research team finds 71 reports where brain death could not have properly been declared, and these organ donors could only have been prisoners in China.

Read the entire essay:
https://bit.ly/3xcLWdI

Source: Americal Journal of Transplantation; #Apr4

#Violation #ProfessionalMedicalProhibitions #CCP

#WarOnUkraine
China Messaging On Ukraine Shows Support For Russia’s Invasion: U.S. State Department

//China’s uncritical amplification of Kremlin views on #Moscow’s invasion of the #Ukraine demonstrates #Beijing’s support for Russia in the war, the #USStateDepartment said in a statement on May 2, 2022.

“Government officials and state and party media from the People’s Republic of China (#PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (#CCP) routinely amplify Kremlin propaganda, conspiracy theories, and disinformation,” the statement said.

“This amplification rationalizes President Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked war against Ukraine while undermining trust in the United States and other countries, democratic institutions, and independent media,” the State Department said.

“Using social media platforms banned within the PRC, PRC and CCP media and PRC ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats convey biased Kremlin talking points to audiences in multiple languages and regions across the world. Meanwhile, within the PRC, CCP and state-backed entities censor credible reporting on Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine while blaming #NATO and the United States for #Putin’s brutal war of choice,” the statement said.

“PRC and CCP media and officials’ further uncritical amplification of Moscow’s messaging demonstrates Beijing’s support for Russia,” even though China hasn’t offered its explicit public endorsement or condemnation of Russia’s invasion, the State Department said.//

Read the official statement:
https://www.state.gov/disarming-disinformation/prc-efforts-to-amplify-the-kremlins-voice-on-ukraine/

Source: Forbes #May2
https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2022/05/02/china-messaging-on-ukraine-shows-support-for-russias-invasion-us-state-department/

Today's Hong Kong, Tomorrow's Taiwan? #Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council: Refuse "One Country Two Systems"

[Editor note: July 1st is the Establishment Day of the Hong Kong SAR, noting the change in Hong Kong's sovereignty from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC since the 1997 handover.]

2022 marks 25 years since the sovereignty over Hong Kong was trasferred from Britain to the #PRC.

The Taiwan government reiterates their refusal of "#OneCountryTwoSystems". Since the #AntiELAB movement in Hong Kong in 2019, Taiwanese people has become more concerned about the happenings in Hong Kong.

How do Taiwanese people see the current situation in Hong Kong? How would they comment on the so-called "unchanging state" promised by the PRC to Hong Kong for 50 years? Are they worried?

#RFA interviewed a few Taiwanese on the 25th anniversary of the change of Hong Kong's sovereignty.

Many people analogise "Today's Hong Kong, Tomorrow's Taiwan" in recent years. One of the interviewees mentioned the change in Hong Kong in these 25 years -- Hong Kong was very vigorous in the media and the publishing industries. She mentioned that Taiwanese sought Hong Kong publishers to produce their "blacklisted books" during the white terror era, but now it is the opposite. She said the so-called unchsnging state is a lie for the regime to deceive people.

Source: RFA #July01
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/htm/tw-71reax-07012022062344.html

#EstablishmentDay #Taiwan #TransferralofSovereignty #Handover #censorship