Thread: Eurasia Topics

Laos the latest China debt trap victim

Laos set to cede majority control of its national power grid to China to service Belt and Road debts

Laos the latest China debt trap victim - Asia Times

Report on Human Rights singles out China as worst violator, denounces torture against Uyghurs, Falun Gong and The Church of Almighty God.


The conclusion that China is the worst international violator of human rights is supported by an analysis of kidnapping and arbitrary or unlawful killings of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others as well as their family members; censorship and site blocking; a “coercive birth-limitation policy that in some cases included sterilization or abortions”; “severe restrictions on labor rights, including a ban on workers organizing or joining unions of their own”; and widespread use of arbitrary detention and torture.
The report noted that “official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly of Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas and of Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang worsened and was more severe than in other areas of the country.”

Of course you love and defend the place, OhOh - you get your child-molestation humour from there as well.

And OhOh, you seem to have completely dropped the pretence of the "Eurasia" thread and turned this into your very own Chinese Communist Party thread - do you get brownie points per post?

Originally Posted by OhOh

Don Sahong Hydropower Project Begins Commercial Operations

Yeah, looks like you missed this:



The Laotian people don't benefit from chinkies stealing their national resources. And that includes through Malaysian shell companies.

^ Ohoh doesn't care about enslaving non-Chinese for the betterment of the Communist Party . . . well, except for when it comes to making a joke out of a young girl being sexually molested . . . sick cvnt

Originally Posted by OhOh

This page of topics.

FDI at work for the Laos citizens.

A Thai company investing in Laos.

A Malaysian company investing in Laos.

No announcement of any NZ companies investing in Laos in the last month.

Try posting something positive about Eurasia, if you wish. Nobody is stopping you.

There's loads of chinky money hidden behind this to fool idiots like you.

Look at the known shareholders of "Mega First" and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

You are so gullible.

RCEP free trade deal signed among 15 participating countries


"HANOI - The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement was signed among its 15 participating countries Sunday, launching the world's biggest free trade bloc.
Participating countries include the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The signing of the RCEP is "a victory of multilateralism and free trade," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday.

Li's remarks came as he attended the fourth RCEP Summit, held via video link.

"The signing of the RCEP is not only a landmark achievement of East Asian regional cooperation, but also a victory of multilateralism and free trade," Li said.

The 15 participating countries of the RCEP account for around 30 percent of the global population, global gross domestic product and global trade.

The RCEP agreement will accelerate the building of the ASEAN economic community and thereby allow ASEAN to become dynamic and strong partners in promoting cooperation for shared prosperity, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the signing ceremony held via video conference.

The signing came after more than 30 rounds of negotiation, which was launched in November 2012, as well as a number of specific leaders and ministerial meetings between the participating countries.

The ongoing 37th ASEAN Summit and related summits take place from Thursday to Sunday via video conferences.
Founded in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam is the ASEAN chair for 2020."

RCEP free trade deal signed among 15 participating countries - World - Chinadaily.com.cn

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Look at the known shareholders of "Mega First" and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The shareholders list/holdings doesn't appear to be in your post. What colour did you use?

Originally Posted by OhOh

What colour did you use?

He doesn't need to use colour to make his point . . . you try, yet fail.



So, more on China's human rights abuses

President Xi Jinping, born in 1953, has indicated his intent to rule indefinitely after China’s legislature amended the constitution in March 2018 to scrap term limits for the presidency. This move was also emblematic of the increasing repression under Xi’s rule.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also strengthened its power over the government bureaucracy in a major overhaul of central government structure in March. The party oversees a powerful new government body, the National Supervisory Commission, which is empowered to detain incommunicado anyone exercising public authority for up to six months without fair trial procedures in a system called “liuzhi.”
In October, Meng Hongwei, then-president of Interpol, the international police organization, and China’s vice minister for Public Security, disappeared upon return to China and was assumed to be held in “liuzhi.” The CCP also subsumed state bodies in charge of religious, ethnic, and overseas Chinese affairs under a party agency, the United Front Work Department.
Authorities dramatically stepped up repression and systematic abuses against the 13 million Turkic Muslims, including Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs, in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. Authorities have carried out mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment of some of them in various detention facilities, and increasingly imposed pervasive controls on daily life. New regulations in Tibet now criminalize even traditional forms of social action, including community mediation by religious figures. In Hong Kong, a region promised “a high degree of autonomy” under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments hastened their efforts in 2018 to undermine people’s rights to free speech and political participation.
Human rights defenders continue to endure arbitrary detention, imprisonment, and enforced disappearance. The government maintains tight control over the internet, mass media, and academia. Authorities stepped up their persecution of religious communities, including prohibitions on Islam in Xinjiang, suppression of Christians in Henan province, and increasing scrutiny of Hui Muslims in Ningxia.
Authorities increasingly deploy mass surveillance systems to tighten control over society. In 2018, the government continued to collect, on a mass scale, biometrics including DNA and voice samples; use such biometrics for automated surveillance purposes; develop a nationwide reward and punishment system known as the “social credit system”; and develop and apply “big data” policing programs aimed at preventing dissent. All of these systems are being deployed without effective privacy protections in law or in practice, and often people are unaware that their data is being gathered, or how it is used or stored.
In 2018, animated by the global #MeToo movement, a number of Chinese women stepped forward exposing people who they said had sexually harassed them. Government censorship dampened subsequent public outrage.
In one of its only human rights concessions all year, Chinese authorities allowed Liu Xia, an artist and the widow of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, to leave for Germany in July after eight years of legally baseless house arrest. However, the decision of authorities to bar her family members from also leaving reflects Beijing’s campaign to punish dissent and restrict expression globally.
China’s growing global power makes it an exporter of human rights violations, including at the United Nations, where in 2018 it sought to block participation of its critics. China again ranked among countries singled out for reprisals against human rights defenders, and in March successfully advanced a Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution on a retrograde approach that it calls “win-win” or “mutually beneficial” cooperation. In this view, states do not pursue accountability for serious human rights violations but engage merely in “dialogue”; moreover, there is no role for independent civil society, only governments, and a narrow role for the UN itself.
Few governments spoke forcefully against these developments, even in the face of Chinese government harassment of people in their own countries or pressure on foreign companies to publicly support Chinese government positions.
Human Rights Defenders

The case of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang is emblematic of authorities’ ruthlessness toward human rights defenders and those activists’ fortitude. Beijing police detained Wang amid a national crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists in August 2015; while detained he was reportedly tortured with electric shocks and forced to take medications. In July, Wang was finally allowed to meet his lawyer for the first time. Charged with “subversion of state power,” he could face life imprisonment if convicted. During Wang’s detention, Li Wenzu, his wife, along with families of other lawyers and activists detained during the crackdown, have campaigned relentlessly for his release despite having to endure incessant intimidation and harassment.
Authorities continued politically motivated prosecutions and disbarments of human rights lawyers. In January, police detained lawyer Yu Wensheng, charging him with “inciting subversion of state power” and “obstructing public duties.” Judicial authorities revoked or suspended the licenses of over a dozen human rights lawyers, and even some who retain licenses have been unable to find work due to police pressure on employers.
In 2018, the courts handed down lengthy prison terms to a number of prominent human rights activists after protracted and sham prosecutions. In July, a Wuhan court sentenced veteran democracy activist Qin Yongmin to 13 years in prison for “subversion of state power.” Qin, 64, has previously spent a total of 22 years in prison or in “Re-education Through Labor.”
Also in July, a Chongqing court sentenced political cartoonist Jiang Yefei to six-and-a-half years in prison for “subversion of state power” and “illegally crossing a national border.” In 2015, Thai authorities forcibly repatriated Jiang and human rights activist Dong Guangping to China even after the pair had been granted UNHCR refugee status. Dong, who was tried alongside Jiang, was given a three-and-a-half-year sentence for inciting subversion and illegal border crossing.
Other defenders continue to face long detentions without trials or verdicts. Liu Feiyue, founder of the human rights news website Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, was detained in November 2016 and charged with “inciting subversion of state power.” He was tried in August 2018 but had not yet been sentenced at time of writing. Veteran activist and founder of the human rights website “64,” Tianwang Huang Qi, has been detained since November 2016 but not yet tried. Huang suffers from several health conditions for which he has not received adequate treatment, including possible imminent kidney failure and lung inflammation.
More human rights defenders were detained in 2018. In July, authorities detained Dong Yaoqiong after she poured ink over a poster of President Xi in Shanghai. Police later held her in a psychiatric hospital and prevented her father from seeing her. In August, Guangxi police detained activist and a leader in the Tiananmen Square protests Zhou Yongjun for possessing materials related to Falun Gong, a banned religious group in China. Also in August, Shenzhen police detained dozens of labor and student activists after they gathered to show support to factory workers at the welding machinery company Jasic International, who were fired for trying to form a union. Some were later released but 14 remained in custody or under house arrest at time of writing.
Authorities also tried to silence Chinese human rights defenders abroad by harassing and detaining their families in China. In January 2018, Guangzhou authorities forcibly disappeared Li Huaiping, wife of Chen Xiaoping, a US-based journalist for the Chinese-language Mirror Media Group. The disappearance came shortly after Chen interviewed Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire fugitive who exposed corruption among China’s ruling elite. Authorities continually harassed the China-based family members of Canadian human rights activist Anastasia Lin, banning them from travel abroad and threatening to persecute them “like in the Cultural Revolution.”
In 2018, authorities continue to subject various activists and lawyers to travel bans, surveillance, detention, and torture and ill-treatment for their efforts to engage with the UN. Using human rights treaties for advocacy was cited in the criminal indictment against activist Qin Yongmin, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Freedom of Expression

Chinese authorities continue to harass and detain journalists who cover human rights issues, as well as their interviewees. In May, Beijing police physically assaulted and briefly detained a cameraperson for the Hong Kong broadcaster Now TV reporting on a human rights lawyer’s court hearing. In July, Hunan police detained independent blogger Chen Jieren after he wrote articles alleging corruption by provincial party officials; state media repeatedly attacked Chen as an “internet pest” who had “polluted the online space.” In August, Shandong police broke into the home of retired professor Sun Wenguang as he was giving a live interview with the US broadcaster Voice of America (VOA). Sun was subsequently put under house arrest. Police later also briefly detained VOA journalists who attempted to interview Sun again.
Authorities expanded their internet censorship regime to suppress politically sensitive information and “vulgar” content. In January 2018, social media platform Weibo suspended several of its most popular programs after authorities ordered it to clean up “wrong-oriented” and “vulgar” information. In April, regulators shut down Neihan Duanzi, a parody and meme app with over 38 million monthly users.
In January 2018, Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared Swedish citizen and bookseller Gui Mihai while he was traveling with Swedish diplomats. Gui, a publisher of books about China’s political intrigues, had been imprisoned for two years from 2015 to 2017 after being abducted from Thailand.
In August, media reports revealed that Google, which suspended its search service in China in 2010 citing censorship concerns, had been developing a censored search engine app for the Chinese market. The app would reportedly comply with China’s expansive censorship requirements by automatically identifying and filtering sites blocked by the Great Firewall, China’s internet filtering system.
The government also tightened its ideological grip over universities. A number of professors, including foreigners, were punished for making comments critical of the government. In July, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China removed Stephen Morgan from its management board after he wrote an online essay critical of the Chinese Communist Party. In August, Guizhou University dismissed economics professor Yang Shaozheng, alleging him of “disseminating politically incorrect views.” Peking University did not renew the contract of American professor Christopher Balding, who had previously launched a campaign calling on Cambridge University Press to resist the Chinese government’s pressure to censor academic articles.
The Chinese government also pressured foreign companies to adhere to disputed terms and policies. In January, US-based Marriott International apologized for listing Taiwan and Tibet as separate countries on its website after authorities shut down the website and app in China for a week. In March, Marriott fired an employee for “liking” a pro-Tibet tweet. After Chinese authorities threatened to ban them from operating in China, dozens of international airlines made changes on their websites to refer to Taiwan as part of China.
Freedom of Religion

The government restricts religious practice to five officially recognized religions in officially approved premises. Authorities retain control over religious bodies’ personnel appointments, publications, finances, and seminary applications. The government classifies many religious groups outside its control as “evil cults,” and subjects members to police harassment, torture, arbitrary detention, and imprisonment.
In February, revised Regulations on Religious Affairs came into effect. Designed to “curb extremism” and “resist infiltration,” they ban unauthorized teaching about religion and going abroad to take part in training or meetings.
In March, a Yunnan court sentenced Christian pastor John Sanqiang Cao to seven years in prison for “organizing others to illegally cross the border” between China and Myanmar. Cao had been involved in educational projects for impoverished minority groups in Myanmar.
A crackdown on Christian churches intensified in Henan province during the year, as authorities demolished dozens of church buildings or the crosses atop of them, prevented believers from gathering in house churches, and confiscated bibles and other religious materials.
In September, the Vatican and Beijing reached a historic deal, ending a decades-long standoff over authority to appoint bishops in China. China’s estimated 12 million Roman Catholics are divided between an underground community that pledges allegiance to the Pope and a government-run association where bishops are state appointed. Under the accord, Beijing will propose names for future bishops and the Pope will have veto power over the appointments.
In August, in the heavily-Hui Muslim Ningxia region, thousands of Huis gathered to protest the demolition of the Grand Mosque in the town of Weizhou. Ningxia authorities have reportedly also moved Islamic icons and Arabic signs from streets across the region.
Hong Kong

Beijing’s assault on Hong Kong’s freedoms, particularly the rights to free expression, association and political participation, worsened considerably in 2018.
The Hong Kong government has continued to disqualify pro-democracy figures from running for seats on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo). In January and October, the Hong Kong Electoral Affairs Commission disqualified Demosisto Party candidate Agnes Chow and Labor Party candidate Lau Siu-lai, respectively, stating that their promotion of “self-determination” for Hong Kong is “inconsistent” with the Basic Law.
The Hong Kong and Chinese governments have harassed people for peaceful pro-independence speech. In March, they denounced pro-democracy scholar Benny Tai, equating his hypothetical discussion of Hong Kong independence with “a threat to national security.” In August, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials had requested that the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club cancel a talk by Andy Chan, a pro-independence activist. After the club refused, Hong Kong authorities rejected without explanation its vice-president’s application to renew his work visa.
In August, Demosisto reported that police had briefly detained and interrogated two members in the mainland in March and August. In September, a pro-independence group, Studentlocalism, said police in the mainland had harassed relatives of two members for their political activities in Hong Kong.
In September, new regulations went into effect allowing mainland law to prevail in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon railway terminus and all operating trains going between Hong Kong and mainland China—a significant step in China’s erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy.
In an unprecedented move, the Hong Kong government in September banned a political party—the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party. Authorities stated that the party “poses a real threat to national security,” against which they had to take “preventive measures.”
Xinjiang

Chinese authorities are hostile to many expressions of Uyghur identity, and have in recent years justified sweeping repression as a necessary response to threats of terrorism.
The Chinese government began waging a “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism” in Xinjiang in 2014. But the level of repression increased dramatically after Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo was transferred from the Tibet Autonomous Region to assume leadership of Xinjiang in late 2016.
Since then, authorities have stepped up mass arbitrary detention, including in pretrial detention centers and prisons, both of which are formal facilities, and in “political education” camps, which have no basis under Chinese law. Credible estimates indicate that 1 million people are being indefinitely held in the camps, where Turkic Muslims are being forced to learn Mandarin Chinese, praise the government and party, and abandon many aspects of their distinct identity. Those who resist or are deemed to have failed to “learn” are punished.
Outside these detention facilities, authorities subject Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang to extraordinary restrictions on personal life. Authorities have recalled passports throughout the region, and to travel from one town or another, people have to apply for permission and go through checkpoints. They are subjected to persistent political indoctrination, including compulsory flag-raising ceremonies and political or denunciation meetings. With unprecedented levels of control over religious practices, authorities have effectively outlawed the practice of Islam in the region.
They have also subjected people in Xinjiang to pervasive surveillance. Authorities employ high-tech mass surveillance systems that make use of QR codes, biometrics, artificial intelligence, phone spyware, and big data. And they have mobilized over a million officials to monitor people, including through intrusive programs in which officials regularly stay in people’s homes.
The campaign has divided families, with some family members in Xinjiang and others abroad caught unexpectedly by the tightening of passport controls and border crossings. Children have at times been trapped in one country without their parents. The government has barred Turkic Muslims from contacting people abroad, and has pressured some Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs living outside the country to return to China, while requiring others to provide detailed personal information about their lives abroad.
The collective punishment of families was particularly striking in the case of five US-based Radio Free Asia Uyghur Service journalists. Media reports in February said their relatives in Xinjiang have been detained in retaliation for their journalism about the region.
In November, China underwent scrutiny of its human rights record through the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). More than a dozen mostly Western countries challenged China’s widespread detention of Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, with some echoing the high commissioner’s call to allow UN experts access to the “political education” camps. No member country of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation explicitly addressed the issue, although Turkey expressed concern at the “confinement of individuals without legal grounds” without making specific reference to Xinjiang.
Tibet

Authorities in Tibetan areas continue to severely restrict religious freedom, speech, movement, and assembly, and fail to redress popular concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, which often involve intimidation and arbitrary violence by security forces. Authorities intensified surveillance of online and phone communications.
There were clear findings by UN human rights experts that the charges were baseless. Nonetheless, courts sentenced former political prisoner Tsegon Gyal in January to three years in prison and language activist Tashi Wangchuk in May to five years.
Several hundred Tibetans traveling on Chinese passports to India for a January 2018 teaching by the Dalai Lama were forced to return early when officials in Tibetan areas threatened retaliation against those traveling abroad and their family members back home.
Intensified political education has been reported in monasteries and schools, and for the public at large. Tibetan authorities have used a nationwide anti-crime campaign to encourage people to denounce members of their communities on the slightest suspicion of sympathy for the exiled Dalai Lama or opposition to the government.
Several more cases were reported in 2018 of land grabs by local officials for construction projects, both in the Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas. In Driru county, 30 villagers were detained in May for allegedly sharing with international media information about the arrest of a village leader who had led popular opposition to a mining project on a sacred mountain.
Tibetans continue to self-immolate to protest Chinese policies; four more such protests took place between November 2017 and time of writing.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights

In 2018, the #MeToo movement gained momentum in China as a slew of prominent academics, journalists, and activists were accused on social media of sexual misconduct. After a prominent state media TV host and a senior Buddhist monk at a government-controlled temple were accused of sexual harassment, censors deleted social media posts about those cases. In June, China University of Petroleum authorities held Ren Liping, a student who had accused an ex-boyfriend of raping her on campus, for six days in a hotel room after she protested against the university and police for mishandling her allegations.
While women in China may be more willing to speak out against sexual harassment, seeking legal redress is still very difficult. Chinese law prohibits sexual harassment, but its failure to define the term makes meaningful legal action nearly impossible.
Women continue to face widespread discrimination in the job market. In the 2018 national civil service job list, 19 percent specified a requirement or preference for men, up from 13 percent from the previous year. Technology giants including Alibaba and Tencent pledged to ensure gender equality in their recruitment.
As China faces an unprecedented sex ratio imbalance and aging population, authorities promoted traditional roles for women, encouraging them to marry early and have children. The “bride shortage” in China has triggered trafficking of women from a number of neighboring countries, an abuse largely ignored by the Chinese government. Although the “one-child policy” has been relaxed to a “two-child policy,” women and girls continue to face violations of their reproductive rights.
The Chinese government remains hostile to women’s rights activism. In March, social media platforms Weibo and WeChat permanently suspended the accounts of Feminist Voices, a social media publication run by outspoken feminists.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

While China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, it lacks laws protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and same-sex partnership is not legal.
In March, the Beijing International Film Festival pulled an award-winning film featuring a homosexual relationship, “Call Me By Your Name,” after it failed to pass government approval. In April, Chinese social media platform Weibo announced that posts related to gay culture would be taken down, as part of a “cleanup” effort. The move prompted widespread protest: many people posted messages with the hashtag “I am gay” and rainbow emoticons. Weibo subsequently dropped the restriction.
In Hong Kong, the territory’s highest court in July ruled that the government’s denial of a visa and associated benefits to the same-sex spouse of a legal resident amounted to discrimination. Around the same time, Hong Kong authorities decided to move a selection of 10 children’s books with LGBT themes to the “closed stacks” in public libraries.
A gay teacher in September filed a suit against his former school, alleging that he was fired because he posted information on social media about a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)-themed event that he had attended.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers

China continued to arrest and forcibly return hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of North Koreans, who Human Rights Watch considers refugees sur place, to North Korean state security services, who has long tortured, sexually abused, and imprisoned them. Beijing refused to consider fleeing North Koreans as refugees and would not grant UNHCR access to them or areas on the North Korea-China border, further violating its obligations as a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Key International Actors

While some governments and parliaments publicly expressed concerns about Beijing’s human rights violations, and continued to try to observe trials and meet with human rights defenders in China, few took forceful action to end abuses or press for accountability.
In March, China proposed a resolution at the Human Rights Council, focusing on its vision for “win-win cooperation” while omitting any role for independent civil society, any mention of accountability, and other core parts of the council’s mandate. The resolution was adopted by a comfortable margin with the US as the only no vote. Throughout the year, members of the US Congress and the administration called for sanctions and export controls.
In July, Germany secured the release of Liu Xia. In September, Malaysia’s new premier, Anwar Ibrahim, publicly called for talks with China about violations in Xinjiang. Sweden did not secure the release of bookseller Gui Minhai; Australia adopted new laws to counter Chinese political interference at home, but took few meaningful steps to challenge the root cause of political repression in China. The European Parliament and the European Union’s External Action Service repeatedly called for release of jailed and disappeared human rights lawyers, dissenters, and activists and expressed concerns about the situation in Xinjiang, but their efforts were partly frustrated by the EU leaders’ failure to echo these concerns and calls publicly at a summit in July.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited China in April and September without publicly expressing his concern about these issues. However, new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, the Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, and the assistant secretary-general for human rights expressed concern particularly about Xinjiang and abuses of human rights defenders.
China continues to use its permanent seat on the UN Security Council to block important discussions of human rights issues. In March 2018, China and Russia successfully mobilized other council members to prevent then-High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein from addressing the council on Syria. In October 2018, it circulated a letter expressing its opposition to the "internationalization" of efforts to address the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and its opposition has stymied stronger Security Council action to react to the crisis.
Foreign Policy

Throughout the year China pressed ahead with its “One Belt, One Road” initiative despite the lack of safeguards or respect for human rights in many participating countries. Some governments, including Myanmar and Malaysia, backed away from previously agreed bilateral investment arrangements, citing unsustainable debt and concerns about sovereignty.
China also pressed other governments, including Egypt, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia, to forcibly return asylum seekers to China.
Major Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, iFlytek, and ZTE, all of which enjoy close relations with the government and contribute to the police’s mass surveillance efforts, tried to expand abroad in 2018. Some were rebuffed by Australia, Canada, and the US due to security concerns.

Oh, and:

Ensuring food security via win-win trade

By ZHONG NAN in Shanghai | China Daily | Updated: 2020-11-16 09:04

"COFCO exploits import links with companies overseas, aids world's economic recovery

COFCO Group, China's largest foodstuff producer and grain trader by sales revenue, signed purchase deals worth over $10 billion with global partners during the third China International Import Expo held in Shanghai earlier this month.

The deals will allow COFCO to import farm produce such as grain, sugar, wine and edible oil.

As it has been meeting surging domestic demand for various foodstuffs, the centrally administered State-owned enterprise has seen the value of its purchases surge by 20 percent on a yearly basis from the last CIIE.

The Beijing-headquartered group was formed by the amalgamation of various subsidiaries that used to trade in oil, oilseeds, sugar, wine and spirits. Its shopping list includes common farm commodities like wheat, corn, sugar, cotton, and wine.

A three-time participant of the CIIE, COFCO bought such commodities as well as nuts, aquatic products and other non-staple foods, in large quantities over the past two expos.

The majority of these products will come from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The imports have been consolidating COFCO's business links with key grain and food producing regions, and will continue to stimulate more trade flows between China and other BRI economies, said Lyu Jun, COFCO's chairman.

In terms of imports of traditional agricultural products, COFCO has expanded its sources of oil products like rapeseed, sunflower and palm oil. It now imports from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia and Malaysia.

There has been a substantial increase in COFCO's imports of corn, sorghum, barley, wheat and other traditional grain from France, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Cambodia and Laos, Lyu said.

COFCO also purchases corn that is used as high-quality raw material to produce snacks like popcorn for sales at cinemas.

China's main importer of sugar and cotton, COFCO relies on its deep knowledge of the world's major production areas. It signed a contract to import more raw sugar from Brazil recently.

"Rising incomes and accelerating urbanization in China are driving demand for more diversified and convenient diets. Higher incomes have also increased the consumption of meat proteins and vegetable oils. COFCO sees Chinese consumers' daily intake of calories, especially proteins, increasing in the future. Packaged food and beverage companies are likely to reap robust returns from China."

Lyu said food consumption is a reflection of economic success. Food consumption is rising. The types of foods people eat are diversifying; foods are becoming more sophisticated and they need to be more convenient, so the whole business has dramatically transformed in China, he said."

Ensuring food security via win-win trade - Chinadaily.com.cn

Originally Posted by OhOh

The shareholders list/holdings doesn't appear to be in your post. What colour did you use?

Do you not know how to use Google?

Originally Posted by OhOh

Lyu said food consumption is a reflection of economic success. Food consumption is rising. The types of foods people eat are diversifying; foods are becoming more sophisticated and they need to be more convenient, so the whole business has dramatically transformed in China, he said."

He forgot to mention all the shit they'll be putting in this stuff to screw a few extra dollars out of it.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Ensuring food security via win-win trade

. . . 'China' and 'Food Safety' . . . not two terms one sees EVER in one sentence

You're not wrong....

Chinese food is famous the world over. Many of us treat ourselves to fine Chinese cuisine every now and then, and have done so for many years. Yet the food industry in China is probably the worst culprit in the world for producing fake, toxic foods. This first reached public attention in 2008 when many infants died of liver failure as a direct result of drinking milk powder that had been laced with a plastic compound called melamine. Renewed scrutiny has found many similar examples of synthetic food being illegally manufactured in China. These items look and feel just like the real thing, yet in many cases, they are toxic and could cause kidney damage or cancer. To help inform you about the danger of eating certain foods in China, or Chinese imports that you are not sure about, we’ve made this shocking list of 10 fake Chinese foods you must avoid.


1. Fake Eggs

The lengths some unscrupulous people go to is astonishing. These fake eggs look very much like the real thing. They are made very cheaply with gelatin, artificial food coloring, water, and a wax shell. The yolks are even said to be bounceable when dropped: that’s how unreal they are.

2. Fake Plastic Rice

Rice is the staple Chinese grain, yet sadly it’s not safe to assume that all the rice in China is genuine. Some rice has been manufactured entirely from potatoes mixed with an industrial resin that could be deadly. The fake rice is very hard to digest, and eating three bowls of it is said to be like eating a plastic bag. You can tell the fake rice from the real by burning a grain of it with a match and seeing whether or not you can smell burned plastic. Fake rice also dissolves in hot oil.

3. Walnuts Stuffed with Cement It’s been discovered, by some unlucky shoppers, that markets in Zhengzhou city, China, are selling walnuts filled with cement. What’s happening is that vendors are emptying the walnuts, selling the nuts separately for a high price, then filling the empty shell with paper-covered cement and sealing it closed. The cement nuts are then sold too, allowing the vendors to make a profit.

4. Fake Beef

Although pork is readily available in China, beef isn’t. Therefore, because of the high market value placed on beef, vendors have found a way to manufacture fake beef by altering pork to make it taste and look like beef. They dip the pork in beef extract and glaze it, which takes well over an hour, but allows them to make a lot of money. Surprisingly, doctors say that this fake beef could cause deformity, poisoning, or cancer.

5. Fake Mutton

To combat the high price of mutton, some food sellers have been serving chemically altered rats, minks, and fox as if they were mutton. In the space of one three-month period, police arrested 900 people for this nefarious scheme. They also seized 20,000 tons of this ‘meat’. The level of E. coli found in the ratty meat was said to be seriously high.

6. Fake Wines

Wine is big business in China, but the customers are disastrously ill-informed about the products they are purchasing. Thus, many wine-sellers in China simply fill posh-looking empty wine bottles with cheap fruit juice and alcohol. You can’t trust labels in China!

7. Fake and Adulterated Honey

China is very bad when it comes to honey. In the Jinan Province alone, some 70% of the honey is fake, of which there are two types. The first is known as adulterated honey, that is, a blend of honey with sugar, beetroot, or rice syrup. The second looks like honey but is made from alum, sugar, water, and coloring. 1 kg of fake honey might be made for as little as $1.60 and sold for around $10.

8. Fake Green Peas

You wouldn’t think it, but in China green peas are often fake. They are made from a combination of snow peas, soy beans, green dye, and metabisulfite. The latter item is actually known to cause cancer and is banned from use on produce. Luckily there are some tell-tale signs of fake peas. When boiled, the water turns green from the food dye, and the peas don’t become soft.

9. Fake Table Salt

Cheap table salt in China is not actually what it purports to be, at least in some cases. In fact, industrial salt has made its way into the food market in a big way. Never buy salt from China, just in case it contains industrial salt. If you consume this, you are at risk of heart attack or stroke.

10. Altered Ginseng

Ginseng is an extremely popular medicinal and culinary root in China that is sold by weight. To make the ginseng appear heavier, some people have been boiling ginseng in sugar water. Natural ginseng is meant to contain 20% sugar, while fake ginseng may contain up to 70%.

10 Shocking Fake Foods Made in China

^ Yup . . . I remember an 'exposé' showing how people were digging out the roadside drains and using the slush for oil in cooking . . . in China of course.

Yup - vile.

So this chinky woman was drowning and all the gormless chinkies just stood around babbling inanely, shooting it on their phone and pointing.

Thankfully a Brit was in attendance, and not any old Brit, but British Consul Stephen Ellison, who took the initiative and jumped in and saved her life.

Video of the babbling cretins and the British hero below.

Longer video here:

British diplomat rescues drowning woman in China | World News | Sky News


Well done that man.

The problem is that most of them can't swim, so there was probably very little they could have done.

It's still a mystery to me why they aren't taught to swim at school in Asia because countless deaths could be avoided each year with just basic swimming skills.

Originally Posted by hallelujah

The problem is that most of them can't swim, so there was probably very little they could have done.

I'm sure babbling and pointing and shooting videos for their Facetube helped a lot.

Seems the old blue suede shoes don't care who's POTUS.

JERUSALEM/AMMAN (Reuters) - Israel launched air raids against what it called a wide range of Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria on Wednesday, sending a signal that it will pursue its policy of striking across the border despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s election defeat.

Israel said it was retaliating for what it called an Iranian-sponsored operation in which Syrians planted explosives near an Israeli military base in the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel has frequently attacked what it says are Iranian-linked targets in Syria in recent years, and stepped up such attacks over the past year in what Western intelligence sources describe as a shadow war to reduce Iran’s influence.

But Wednesday’s attacks struck a far wider range of targets than usual, and the Israeli military was more forthcoming about the details than it has been in the past, suggesting a clear intention to send a public message.

Trump, who lost his re-election bid on Nov. 3, has been a strong backer of Israeli military intervention against Iranian forces in Syria. President-elect Joe Biden has said he will try to revive a nuclear agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned.

The Syrian state news agency reported that three military personnel were killed and one wounded in “Israeli aggression”.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said eight targets were hit, belonging to the Syrian army or Iran’s Quds Force, in areas stretching from the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights to the Damascus periphery.

They included an Iranian headquarters at Damascus international airport, a “secret military site” that hosted Iranian military delegations, and the 7th Division of the Syrian armed forces, he said. Syrian surface-to-air defences were hit after firing at Israeli planes and missiles, Conricus said.

Israel strikes widely in Syria, sending signal of aggressive post-Trump posture | Reuters