United States, Japan and South Korea, in a joint statement condemned the ‘dangerous and aggressive behaviour’ by China and expressed stern opposition against any attempt to change the status quo in the Indo-Pacific. The three leaders made several pledges in an historic Camp David meeting, and issued sharp rebukes to China and Russia.

After the first-ever trilateral summit between the three countries held in the US, a joint statement was released titled ‘The Spirit of Camp David’ expressing support for their collective alliance.

“Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States are determined to align our collective efforts because we believe our trilateral partnership advances the security and prosperity of all our people, the region, and the world,” the statement read.


The three nations expressed commitment to expanding cooperation trilaterally and raising shared ambition to a new horizon across domains and across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.


“We will strengthen our economies, provide resilience and prosperity, support the free and open international order based on the rule of law, and bolster regional and global peace and security, especially as current and incoming members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

“We will strengthen our coordination on promoting democracy and protecting human rights. And we will enhance strategic coordination between the US-Japan and US-ROK alliances and bring our trilateral security cooperation to new heights,” the joint statement read.

Additionally, the joint declaration by US, Japan and South Korea expressed shared concerns over Chinese actions in supporting unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea, as well as their strong opposition to any unilateral actions by Beijing aimed at changing the existing situation in the Indo-Pacific waters. We share concerns about actions inconsistent with the rules-based international order, which undermine regional peace and prosperity.

“Recalling the publicly announced position of each of our countries regarding the dangerous and aggressive behaviour supporting unlawful maritime claims that we have recently witnessed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the South China Sea, we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific,” the statement read.

They also opposed the militarization of reclaimed features; the dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels and coercive activities, and further expressed concern about illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

The three countries also reiterated their commitment to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, emphasizing that the basic positions on Taiwan remain unchanged, and they called for peaceful resolutions to cross-Strait matters.

“We reiterate our firm commitment to international law, including the freedom of navigation and overflight, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The July 2016 award in the South China Sea arbitration sets out the legal basis for the peaceful resolution of maritime conflicts between the parties to that proceeding.

“We reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community. There is no change in our basic positions on Taiwan, and we call for a peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues,” the joint statement added.

They also announced holding the first trilateral meeting between the finance ministers and launching a new commerce and industry ministers track that will meet annually. An annual Trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue will also be launched to coordinate the implementation of Indo-Pacific approaches and to continually identify new areas for common action.


Expressing support for the ASEAN-led regional architecture, the three countries affirmed commitment to working closely with ASEAN partners to support robust implementation and mainstreaming of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

US, Japan and South Korea also reaffirmed the commitment towards “complete denuclearization” by North Korea in accordance with relevant UNSC resolutions and urged Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“Furthermore, we reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in accordance with relevant UNSC resolutions and urge the DPRK to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. We call on all UN Member States to fully implement all relevant UNSC resolutions.

“We strongly condemn the DPRK’s unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches, including multiple intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches and conventional military actions that pose a grave threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond,” the statement read.


The three countries added that in addition to the security partnership, they will also maintain focus on building robust cooperation in the economic security and technology spheres.

“We are fully committed to continuing to eliminate barriers to economic participation and build diverse, accessible, and inclusive economies in which all our people—including women and marginalized groups—can succeed. We will work to further strengthen our people-to-people ties, including among our young people and students,” the joint statement further read.

They also stated that the trilateral summit marks a “new chapter” in their relationship and the three countries depart from Camp David with a “shared resolve and optimism for the future”.

“Today, we declare that a new chapter in our trilateral relationship has begun. We are aligned in our vision; undaunted in the face of our era’s greatest challenges; and, most of all, united in our belief that Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States can meet those challenges together, now and in the future,” the statement added.

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) tracked 11 Chinese military aircraft and five naval vessels around Taiwan between 6 a.m. on Tuesday (August and 6 a.m. on Wednesday (August 9).

Of the 11 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, one BZK-005 reconnaissance drone crossed the Taiwan Strait median line in the southwest corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), according to the MND.

Meanwhile, a Harbin Z-9 anti-submarine warfare helicopter entered the southeast sector of the ADIZ.

In response, Taiwan sent aircraft, naval ships, and used land-based missile systems to monitor PLA activity.

So far this month, Beijing has sent 94 military aircraft and 62 naval ship sorties around Taiwan. Since September 2020, China has increased its use of gray zone tactics by incrementally increasing the number of military aircraft and naval ships operating around Taiwan.

Gray zone tactics are defined as “an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one’s security objectives without resort to direct and sizable use of force.”

Chinese authorities are showing a shocking disregard for the religious rights and cultural heritage of Tibetans and Uyghurs in East Turkistan (Xinjiang). Reports indicate that religious sites, such as the historic Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, are being opened to paying tourists while believers are restricted from practicing their faith, except on select holy days and for propaganda purposes.

The Id Kah Mosque, once a significant place of worship for Uyghur Muslims, has been largely closed for divine service since 2016 as part of the Chinese rulers' harsh actions against religion and culture in the region.

This suppression of faith extends far beyond the mosque, as the Uyghur Human Rights Project reveals that up to 16,000 mosques (approximately 65% of all mosques) have been destroyed or damaged as a result of government policies since 2017.

Ironically, the Chinese authorities have the audacity to promote tourism in the region, boasting about the "well-preserved cultural traditions of all ethnic groups." This tourism strategy is part of Beijing's plan to exert control over non-Chinese regions like East Turkistan and Tibet while simultaneously reshaping their cultures to align with that of the Chinese mainland.

The Chinese government appears to view tourism as an avenue to impose a uniform Chinese identity on these regions, disregarding the right of the local populations to preserve and represent their own unique cultures and heritage. The essence of their culture and spirituality is utilized as a basis for profitable tourism, leaving the inhabitants with little say in how their traditions are presented.

In Tibet, a similar pattern emerges, exemplified by the situation at the Buddhist study center Larung Gar and the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Chinese authorities have implemented regulations favoring Chinese tourists over Tibetan Buddhist believers, further emphasizing their disregard for spiritual rights.

The new rules at the Jokhang Temple separated visiting hours for pilgrims and tourists, significantly extending the time for tourists, many of whom were Chinese, to access the temple. This prioritization of tourism over religious practices undermines the sanctity of these sacred sites and deeply affects the Tibetan community.

Behind the facade of a picturesque tourist destination, the reality remains stark: Tibetans are being systematically assimilated into Chinese culture, with their religion and traditions reduced to mere folkloric attractions for tourists.

China's size and ambition has enabled it to successfully penetrate every sector of the UK's economy, an influential parliamentary panel has said, warning that Beijing's national imperative continues to become a technological and economic superpower on which other countries are reliant, which represents the "greatest risk" to the UK.

The House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said in a wide-ranging report released on Thursday that the intelligence threat posed by China is compounded by a "whole-of-state" approach with the use of state and non-state players for spying, PTI reports.

China's national imperative continues to be the dominance and governance of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and at a global level, to become a technological and economic superpower on which other countries are reliant, which represents the "greatest risk" to the UK, it said.It cautioned that the level of resources dedicated by the UK to tackling the threat posed by China's so-called "whole-of-state" approach has been "completely inadequate".

"China almost certainly maintains the largest state intelligence apparatus in the world - dwarfing the UK's Intelligence Community and presenting a challenge for our agencies to cover," the report notes."As a result, our agencies' work has to be targeted on those aspects that are most damaging. However, the problem is compounded by China's 'whole-of-state' approach," it said.

"In practice, this means that Chinese state-owned and non-state-owned companies, as well as academic and cultural establishments and ordinary Chinese citizens, are liable to be (willingly or unwillingly) co-opted into espionage and interference operations overseas: much of the impact that China has on national security is overt - through its economic might, its takeovers and mergers, its interaction with Academia and Industry - as opposed to the covert activity carried out by its intelligence officers," it said.

The ISC review is critical of the UK government approach, which until the pandemic readily accepted Chinese investments.

"China's size, ambition and capability have enabled it to successfully penetrate every sector of the UK's economy, and - until the Covid-19 pandemic - Chinese money was readily accepted by HMG [His Majesty's Government] with few questions asked," it said.

"China's ruthless targeting is not just economic: it is similarly aggressive in its interference activities, which it operates to advance its own interests, values and narrative at the expense of those of the West," it adds.

The ISC called for tougher action in the government's "robust" and "clear-eyed" approach to China, as it found that external experts believe it was singularly failing to deploy a whole-of-government approach when countering the threat from China - "a damning appraisal indeed".

"If the Government is serious about tackling the threat from China, then it needs to ensure that it has its house in order such that security concerns are not constantly trumped by economic interest," the ISC said.

In 2022, China’s former foreign minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar, but he did not meet with the regime’s leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. On May 2 2023, the general warmly welcomed Wang’s successor Qin Gang. The minister expressed China’s support for the regime regardless of the situation and promised deeper economic cooperation. He further promised to support Myanmar’s efforts ‘to maintain stability’.

In March 2021, China condemned the violence against civilians, halted investments and engaged with the exiled National League for Democracy (NLD)’s members. This support changed dramatically in 2023 as China began a new diplomatic approach. On 4 April 2023, the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Yunnan Provincial Committee Wang Ning arrived in Naypyidaw.

Later that month, an envoy from the CCP came and met former junta leader Than Shwe — now 90 years old — who had nurtured closer relations with China than Min Aung Hlaing. The envoy also met former president Thein Sein. These meetings were intended to ask the former leaders to advise Min Aung Hlaing, who is known to be anti-Chinese, to forge closer ties.

China’s strategy intertwines economic, political and military dimensions. Since the military coup, China has invested US$113 million in Myanmar.

The China–Myanmar Economic Corridor provides an important economic link between the two countries. The plan for a high-speed railway between Yunnan and Rakhine — which was shelved in 2014 — is now back on the table, as is a windmill project in Rakhine, a hydroelectric power station in Kachin state and a gas power plant.

For Myanmar, supplies of food, fertiliser and stable electricity are urgent, and China is addressing this through infrastructure. Since February 2023, the 770 kilometre-long Chinese-operated oil pipeline from Rakhine to Yunnan has been used to transport Russian oil to China. The pipeline begins at the deep-sea port in Kyaukphyu on Ramree Island and is very important to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

On the political and military front, China worries about the border regions, where fighting between Myanmar’s military and ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) often land both bombs and refugees on the Chinese side. Qin visited the United Wa State Army, Kachin Independent Army, Arakan Army and other China-friendly northeast EAOs before he saw Min Aung Hlaing. Qin has urged Yunnan to strengthen its border defence.

China worries that the People’s Defense Force (PDF) will attack its investments in Myanmar. PDF attacked one of the stations on the pipeline in February 2022. In May 2023 a series of anti-Chinese protests arose — reflecting mounting resentment towards Chinese investments for neglecting the locals and the environment. The resistance has called for a boycott of Chinese products.

There has also been speculation that China is helping to construct a base on the 11 km-long Great Coco Island, which is located 300 kilometres away from Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal. The island has a radar station and an airfield.

Another sign of China’s offensive strategy in the region was a visit by Chinese diplomats to Bangladesh to accelerate the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, despite poor conditions in the Rakhine settlement camps.

The strategy in Myanmar is also part of China’s attempts to counter US influence in the region. The United States’ 2021 Burma Act will provide support to the National Unity Government and the resistance. This may have convinced China to support Min Aung Hlaing.

Chinese envoys have not been allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi and China is not happy with the NLD ban. Despite these concerns, a strategic triad alliance between China, Russia and Myanmar is emerging. Perhaps this is a convenient relationship for the three partners, but it is viewed cynically by Myanmar’s civilians.

Demonstrations have intensified and the pipeline has been attacked three times since Qin’s visit. The parallel National Unity Government has declared Chinese investments illegal. For Min Aung Hlaing, the alliance is a question of survival. He badly needs economic, political and military support and so has chosen to ignore resentment against increased Chinese influence.

Meanwhile, China’s Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai met with Myanmar’s Home Affairs Minister and urged him to crack down on the internet fraud and gambling hub Shwe Kokko run by Chinese criminals on the border with Thailand.

The Ambassador urged Myanmar to rescue the people trafficked and trapped by Shwe Kokko. But their headquarters are guarded by the Border Guard Forces of the military, which have stakes in the business. China clearly wants Min Aung Hlaing to get control over matters affecting Chinese interests before it sends an invitation for an official visit to Beijing.

The military uses its Russian fighter aircraft and helicopters to bomb civilians, while troops have been burning villages and murdering civilians. The resistance is without a firm coherent command, needs more international help and depends on EAOs opposing the regime. But the resistance will not give up until there is substantial change.

Any mediation seems impossible and the generals are used to cope with international sanctions. China’s support of Min Aung Hlaing is bad for the resistance and the humanitarian crisis. If China’s support for Myanmar continues to be guided by a desire to serve its own interests, prospects for changing the situation will remain dim.

Written by Mikael Gravers, Associate Professor Emeritus at the School of Culture and Society in the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University.

The Shaanxi Bible School, located in Xixian New Area, is at the vanguard of "Sinicization," or adapting its programmes and activities to the purposes and beliefs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Bitter Winter reported. Organizations calling themselves Christian but operating under government control in China have formed a committee dedicated to making Christianity adhere to socialist ideology, as per reports.

Such a push is called “sinicization.” It is the goal of the newly created Special Committee to Advance the Sinicization of Christianity.

It also maintains a “cosmetic” ecumenical interaction with and receives assistance from Western churches that fail to recognise the Three-Self Church’s true role as a puppet of the state.

On May 31, 2023, Shaanxi Bible School hosted a study session titled “Singing the Main Theme and Praising the New Era.”

Bitter Winter said that the goal was to study the important speeches and conclusions of the CCP’s 20th National Congress.

Bitter Winter is an online magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China published by CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, headquartered in Torino, Italy. Scholars, journalists, and human rights activists from different countries started working together to give a voice to the voiceless by publishing news, documents, and testimonies about persecution against all religions in China.

Having watched videos of the 20th Congress, students sang patriotic songs, including “Sing a Folk Song for the Party,” and, in the world of a press release, “expressed their love for the motherland and the CCP.”

The School was also asked to honor three revolutionary heroes, whose lives were narrated by three students. Interestingly, these are three figures who supported Chairman Mao and betrayed Christianity to become staunch supporters of the CCP.

Composer Ma Ke is known for his revolutionary song “Nanniwan,” a CCP favourite that was sung by the students at the end of the study session. He was raised as a Christian (his parents wanted his full name to sound like “Mark” to honour Saint Mark) but became a Communist, moved to Yan’an, and was for many years the regime’s official composer, Bitter Winter reported.

Medical doctor Luo Jinwen is honoured by the CCP as a martyr as he died of exhaustion while performing surgeries for long hours on those wounded in the anti-Japanese fight in Shaanxi.

He was given by his Christian parents the name of Mark, and attended an Anglican, school but also switched to a true belief in the cause of the revolution, at least according to the official biographies.

The third honored hero, Bishop Shen Zigao, was a prominent figure in China’s Anglican Church, who betrayed his fellow Christians and sided with the CCP, eventually joining the Party-controlled Three-Self Church, Bitter Winter reported.

His son Shen Yifan also became a bishop and a leader of the Three-Self Church.

We can understand what kind of Christianity is taught to Bible School students in China. Their role models are Christians who either joined the CCP and abandoned Christianity altogether or converted their churches into obedient tools of the party.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has expanded its repression of the Uyghur in recent years, which includes limiting their freedom of expression, speech, religion, and freedom to move around, Voices Against Autocracy reported.

Several media reports have underlined the persecution of Uyghurs as the most horrifying crime against humanity in China.

Since 2017, the Chinese government has incarcerated over a million Uyghurs in “re-education camps” and subjected those who have not been detained to rigorous monitoring, religious restrictions, forced labour, and forcible sterilisation, according to Voices Against Autocracy.

It has been regarded as “the largest incarceration of a minority group since the Holocaust” by Western researchers.

A UN Human Rights Office assessment released last year indicated “patterns of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” in the camps. The vast majority of those incarcerated in the camps were never charged and had no legal recourse to protest their confinement.

According to a recent Al Jazeera report (released on 4 May 2023) citing a Human Rights Watch (HRW) forensic investigation, Chinese authorities have monitored the phones of the ethnic minority Uyghur for the presence of 50,000 known multimedia files that were used to flag what China views as extremism, with the mere possession of the Quran triggering a police interrogation.

Notably, China also continues to utilise its considerable influence to influence UN processes and ensure that its partners avoid publicly acknowledging Uyghur oppression.

Following the release of the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted down a motion by the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to convene a debate on human rights abuses in Xinjiang in October 2022, just the second time in sixteen years reported Voices Against Autocracy.

On the Chinese atrocities on Uyghur minorities, Michael Levitt, writing in the Toronto Star said that world attention on the plight of the Uyghur has somewhat decreased.

He concludes his case by noting that the oppression of Uyghurs in China is one of the most heinous crimes against humanity.

According to the US State Department’s annual report on religious freedom around the world, violations of human rights in China and Iran have become a major cause of concern in recent times.

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken said that most oppressive nations around the world are growing even more dire. “Governments in many parts of the world continue to target religious minorities using a host of methods, including torture, beatings, unlawful surveillance, and so-called re-education camps,” he said.

Blinken underscored abuses against the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority group in Xinjiang province of China, a country one senior State Department official described as “one of the worst abusers of human rights and religious freedom in the world.”

The report, according to ANI, accused Beijing of jailing as many as 10,000 or more people in 2022 in a widening campaign of repression against religious belief meant to bring all theological activity under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.

The United States, US, has opened an embassy in the Pacific island nation of Tonga, being Washington’s latest move to broaden its presence in the region to counter China’s increasing influence in recent years, CNN reports.

“We are pleased to announce the United States officially opened the US Embassy in Nuku’alofa on May 9, 2023, less than one year after Vice President Harris announced at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum that we would begin discussions with Tonga regarding establishing an embassy,” US State Department said in the statement.

“This opening symbolizes the renewal of our relationship and underlines the strength of our commitment to our bilateral relations, to the people of Tonga, and to our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region,” the statement added.

According to CNN, the announcement came the same day the White House confirmed President Joe Biden will travel to Papua New Guinea during a trip to the Indo-Pacific region later this month, marking the first visit of a sitting US President to the Pacific country.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller described the Tonga embassy opening as symbolizing “the renewal of our relationship and underlines the strength of our commitment to our bilateral relations, to the people of Tonga, and to our partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Tonga is a nation of 171 islands in the South Pacific about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand, according to the CIA’s World Fact Book.

The embassy in the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa is the second that Washington has opened in the Pacific islands this year, following the reopening of one in the Solomon Islands in February, CNN reported.

The country is considered upper-income for Pacific Island nations, but much of its wealth comes from remittances from the overseas diaspora, according to the CIA, which also notes it is seeing “rapidly growing Chinese infrastructure investments.”

That is the kind of influence from Beijing the Biden administration is trying to offset by opening the embassy in Nuku’alofa and in the other Pacific island nations, reported CNN.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday linked the production of lithium in China to "slave labor" as he discussed his own country's efforts to ramp up production of the metal used in electric vehicle and other batteries.

Canada has significant sources of lithium, Trudeau said, but China has made strategic choices over the decades that have made it by far the world's largest producer.

"If we're honest ... the lithium produced in Canada is going to be more expensive. Because we don't use slave labor," Trudeau said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"Because we put forward environmental responsibility as something we actually expect to be abided by. Because we count on working with, in partnership, with Indigenous peoples, paying their living wages, expecting security and safety standards."

A representative for the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment.

Canada last year announced a tougher policy on critical mineral investment - particularly from China - as it worked to shore up its domestic supply after the global pandemic exposed supply chain problems.

"If the pandemic taught us anything, if the pandemic taught us anything, it's resilience, redundancy and reliability in our supply chains," Trudeau said.

The United States has alleged use of forced labor by China in sectors including mining and construction. Last year, a U.S. law took effect banning imports from China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor.

In December, the United Auto Workers union called on automakers to shift their entire supply chain out of Xinjiang after a report by Britain's Sheffield Hallam University suggested that nearly every major automaker has significant exposure to products made with forced labor.

China denies abuses in Xinjiang, a major cotton producer that also supplies much of the world's materials for solar panels.

Chinese firms also own, operate or finance most of the Democratic Republic of Congo's cobalt mines, the U.S. Labor Department said in a recent report. "Our research shows that lithium-ion batteries are produced with an input - cobalt - made by child labor," it said.

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki
on Thursday accused Europeans of making a potentially historic mistake by seeking greater ties with China, in a clear reference to French President Emmanuel Macron, as he warned of consequences for Ukraine.

“Shortsightedly they look to China to be able to sell more EU products there at huge geopolitical costs, making us more dependent on China and not less,” the Prime Minister said on a visit to Washington.

“Some European countries are trying to make with China the same mistake which was made with Russia – this dramatic mistake,” he said at the Atlantic Council think tank.

Paraphrasing Macron’s remarks without naming him, Morawiecki said, “You cannot protect Ukraine today and tomorrow by saying Taiwan is not your business.”

“I think that, God forbid, if Ukraine falls, if Ukraine gets conquered, the next day China may attack – can attack – Taiwan,” he said.

Alluding to Macron’s comments alongside President Xi Jinping about a more multipolar role, Morawiecki scoffed.

“European autonomy sounds fancy, doesn’t it? But it means shifting the centre of European gravity towards China and severing the ties with the US,” he said.

“I do not quite understand the concept of strategic autonomy if it means de facto shooting into our own knee.”

Macron visited China last week with a major French business delegation and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Macron urged Xi not to send weapons to Russia but also said that France would not be a mere “follower” of either Washington or Beijing when it comes to growing tensions over Taiwan.

The French leader said bluntly that Europeans could not credibly promise to support Taiwan as they had not solved the Ukraine crisis. China launched military exercises near Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy it claims, soon after Macron left, with Beijing angry over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting in California with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Poland, where memories remain raw both of Soviet domination and Nazi Germany, has taken a leading role in supporting neighbouring Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, including by sending MiG-29 fighter planes.

Morawiecki, in a barely concealed allusion to both Germany and France, accused Western European powers of providing weaker support for Ukraine than the United States, Britain and the bulk of Eastern and Central Europe with the exception of Hungary.

No fewer than 39 Chinese nationals have been arrested by Sri Lanka’s Aluthgama police in connection with online financial fraud, Daily Mirror reported.

Police said the suspects had defrauded millions of money over several months through the internet from the accounts of people in different countries.

The group had been staying in a tourist resort in the Kaluamodara area in Aluthgama and Police said they were arrested based on complaints received through several embassies, according to Daily Mirror.

While the arrested Chinese nationals were taken to the Alutgama police, several smartphones and cash in their possession were also taken into custody by police, reports the English daily.

This is the second incidence this week of Chinese nationals being arrested from another country for online fraud.

In another such incident, three years after arresting 122 Chinese nationals from different parts of Kathmandu for their suspicious activities, Nepal police on Tuesday nabbed nine China nationals for their alleged involvement in online fraud. Police also arrested 10 Nepalis who were allegedly helping them in the business, according to The Kathmandu Post.

Police said this time they have ‘strong evidence’ to file an online fraud case. “Earlier, the police would be short of evidence as they would be found to be running a call centre or doing some other legitimate activities,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Manoj KC, who is also the in-charge at the Valley Crime Investigation Office, Minbhawan, adding, “But this time we have enough evidence.”

“They were found duping Nepalis of money from their illegal offices in the Valley,” KC said.
“Through these offices, they ran online classes called ‘Operation Teacher’ over Telegram,” he added.

The crime office in charge said the operators would make various tempting offers to general people after initially connecting over WhatsApp and then making them join online classes via Telegram.

Police said one of the victims lost Rs4.7 million in the business whereby the Chinese would send messages via WhatsApp with an offer of investment in an online business from where one was liable to get over 30 per cent net profit.

The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has pointed out that a more assertive China poses a “systemic challenge” to the global order, even as he voiced concerns over Russia and China.

He disclosed this to NBC News on Sunday as the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia planned to unveil their latest steps in a defense partnership to counter Beijing’s growing military might.

“The behavior that we’ve seen in China over recent times is concerning,” Sunak told NBC News’ Lester Holt at the USS Midway Museum shortly after he arrived in San Diego for the summit. China is “acting in a more authoritarian fashion at home” and is “more assertive overseas,” he said.

Watch more from the interview Monday on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT. 

“China represents the biggest state threat to our economic interests, for sure. And it’s a systemic challenge for the world order,” he said.

President Joe Biden is hosting Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego to endorse newly agreed-upon initiatives for the AUKUS defense pact, 18 months after the partnership was announced. The ambitious defense partnership aims to deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra as part of a bid to counter China’s military buildup in Asia.

China has countered by calling the AUKUS submarine deal “a blatant act of nuclear proliferation” that undermines regional peace and stability.

Sunak, a multimillionaire former banker and former finance minister, also weighed in on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank after federal regulators stepped in to back the lender’s deposits, saying it was important to a large number of British technology companies. 

“I’ve been working through the weekend with our finance minister, the chancellor and our Bank of England, our regulators, to find an appropriate solution. We’ll be making an announcement about that very shortly,” he said.

Sunak, 42, took office Oct. 25 after a period of political turbulence in the U.K., becoming its third leader in seven weeks following the collapse of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s scandal-plagued government and the light-speed implosion of his successor, Liz Truss. 

He cited a summit with French President Emmanuel Macron last week and the trilateral meeting set for Monday in San Diego as examples of Britain playing a vital role on the world stage.

“Britain is back,” he added.

Allies respond with caution, anger to new Pacific security pac

Pending approval from Congress, Australia is expected to acquire up to five U.S. Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s under the AUKUS deal, while Britain and the U.S. plan to help Australia eventually manufacture its own nuclear-powered fleet.

Although he cited concerns over China's actions, Sunak said there was still a place for engagement with Beijing, including on climate issues and the stability of the global economy.

Asked how Britain would respond if China were to try to seize Taiwan through military force, he declined to answer directly.

Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its territory, is under growing pressure from China, which has not ruled out using force to seize control.

Taiwan’s most important international backer is the U.S., which is bound by law to provide it with defensive weapons but has long been vague as to whether it would intervene militarily if China attacked the island.

Sunak said the international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine served to deter any country from launching an unprovoked attack.

Ports in Nigeria and Cameroon illustrate how Chinese firms are shifting to ‘integrated investment, construction, and operation’ model. Chinese financing and investment in big African infrastructure projects under belt and road fell to a historical low last year

Lekki Deep Sea Port in Nigeria is among new megaprojects in Africa showing how the Chinese government lending boom is gradually being replaced by the commercial project market.

Observers say Chinese firms are shifting from a model that limited them to engineering, procurement, construction plus finance to now taking stakes in running the infrastructure once it is built in a model known as integrated investment, construction, and operation (IICO).

IICO is now commonly used in Chinese discussions on public-private partnerships (PPPs). It refers to a long-term contract which usually entails the design, financing, construction, operation and, in certain cases, toll collection of an asset.

It also comes in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT), build, own, operate, transfer (BOOT) and build-own-operate (BOO) contracting.

Nigeria opens new China-funded seaport in bid to drive economic growth

Nigeria opens new China-funded seaport in bid to drive economic growth. The approach is being promoted by Beijing and is behind new projects such as the Lekki port in Lagos and phase 1 of Port of Kribi in Cameroon. The Kribi port was financed by China Eximbank and contracted to China Harbour Engineering Company for construction and which later joined as a minor shareholder in the port operation joint venture.

Another example is the 27km (16-mile) Nairobi Expressway built and financed by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation for US$668 million. The firm will recoup its investment by charging toll fees for three decades before transferring ownership to the Kenyan government.

Last month, at the inauguration of the US$1.5 billion Lekki port, Chinese ambassador to Nigeria Cui Jianchun praised the financing model used to build the country’s largest deep seaport. Referring to the port, the ambassador said it was a valuable practice for Chinese companies to move from engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to a strategic investor in building major infrastructure projects in Africa.

“The government doesn’t need to worry about the existence of guarantees or debt risks,” Cui said, adding that China would promote this business model for everyone’s benefit.

Lekki port, 64km (40 miles) east of Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, is expected to help the country meet its growing cargo demand. Two other Lagos terminals – Apapa and Tin Can Island – are shallow and cannot receive large container ships, forcing bigger vessels to call on ports in neighbouring countries before the cargo is shipped to Nigeria in smaller vessels.

Zhang Hui, deputy general manager of the China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, foreshadowed significant changes to the market, noting in 2021 that the international engineering model centred on design, procurement and construction was shifting to “investment, construction and operation”. The corporation, also known as Sinosure, is China’s policy agency providing insurance for export and outward investment.

“The fiscal investment model in which the host country’s government plays a leading role in investment is evolving into a diversified investment model. The adoption of the PPP model to promote the construction of public infrastructure projects has become an important trend for enterprises to participate in international cooperation,” Zhang told an infrastructure investment and construction forum in Macau in 2021.

By the first half of that year, Sinosure had cumulatively underwritten 221 overseas projects integrating “investment, construction and operation” worth US$56.3 billion, pointing to more Chinese companies taking up the financing model.

The shift to public-private partnerships for Chinese companies comes amid reduced bilateral lending for overseas projects as Chinese lenders take a more cautious approach in financing infrastructure projects.

Chinese financing and investment in big African infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative fell to a historical low last year as China cut financing for some big-ticket projects because of debt concerns, and shifted capital to other regions. Belt and road funding in sub-Saharan Africa dropped 54 per cent last year, from US$16.5 billion in 2021 to US$7.5 billion, according to the Green Finance and Development Centre, a think tank which is part of the Fanhai International School of Finance at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Hong Zhang, a China public policy postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation, said China Harbour only became an investor in Lekki port after the original developer – Singapore’s Tolaram Group – failed to secure financing from European and Nigerian banks.

Zhang said China Harbour, originally hired by Tolaram as the EPC contractor in 2012, started approaching Tolaram about providing equity investment in 2017. Eventually, they agreed on a 70-30 split in the Lekki Port Investment Holding joint venture with China Harbour taking the majority.

This joint venture in turn holds a 75 per cent stake in the concessionaire responsible for developing Lekki port – together with the Lagos state government (20 per cent) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (5 per cent). The venture won a 45-year concession and has a preferential right for a 25-year renewal.
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However, Zhang said the Nigerian partners and Tolaram also demanded the operation be separated from China Harbour’s control for the sake of balance.

“This was how CMA Terminals, a subsidiary of the French shipping conglomerate CMA-CGM, came into the picture … CMA will take an 80 per cent stake in the joint venture with CHEC that will operate Lekki port,” Zhang said in a recent study published by the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“Importantly, CMA’s guarantee of port traffic helped convince China Harbour’s leaders to greenlight the investment. The two companies already have a history of cooperation, including as joint venture partners for the operation of Cameroon’s Kribi port.”

In 2020, China Harbour injected US$221 million of equity capital into China Harbour Engineering LFTZ Enterprise. China Development Bank then advanced a US$629 million loan facility to build the port with the aim of making Africa’s most populous nation a logistics hub.

Zhang said BOT/BOOT (thus IICO) projects were most likely in the power sector, and some Chinese companies such as Sinohydro and PowerChina had already done business this way for a while. Chinese firms did not have as much experience in roads, another sector seeing a rise in public-private partnerships around the world, Zhang said.

“[China Road and Bridge Corporation] is learning to do it, and this case of Nairobi Expressway is one of their first attempts in Africa, and very worth watching,” she said.

Zhang said the port sector was “quite special because development of new major ports is relatively rare” and Chinese companies had fewer examples to follow, “that’s why Lekki port is so significant”.

China-funded infrastructure across Africa force difficult decisions for its leaders

China-funded infrastructure across Africa force difficult decisions for its leaders
Tim Zajontz, a research fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said the Chinese government had started to encourage Chinese firms to invest in PPPs in African infrastructure markets as early as 2016, when debt sustainability had started to wane in several African countries.

“Beijing has since actively promoted PPPs across Africa as a debtless alternative to loan-financed infrastructure development. However, research shows that PPPs can come with burdensome long-term liabilities for public authorities if not negotiated prudently,” said Zajontz, who is also a research associate with the Second Cold War Observatory, a global collective of scholars concerned with the effects of intensifying power rivalries.

He said the success of China’s belt and road programme in Africa depended on gradually shifting the initiative’s financial governance from sovereign loan finance towards investments in public-private partnerships.

Zajontz said Beijing’s active globalisation of the “integrated investment, construction and operation” model was therefore motivated by both economic and political reasons.

He said both private and state-owned Chinese firms were interested in continuing Africa’s infrastructure boom, because they were heavily invested and widely mobilised in African markets.

“With a growing number of African governments unable to take on new loans, the privatisation of infrastructure development is currently returning as the renewed order of the day,” Zajontz said. “Chinese firms will try to capitalise on these market developments by increasingly transforming from being mere contractors to becoming long-term investors and operators of African infrastructure.”

Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said what she found interesting was that Singapore and some Middle Eastern countries were becoming partners as part of the new development trend.

She said Singapore’s Tolaram Group was involved in the Lekki port and Singaporean shipping, and maritime firm Winning International Group, along with Chinese investors, was investing in infrastructure connected to the Simandou iron ore deposit in Guinea.

She said there might be echoes of the type of joint venture enterprises (JVEs) China used in the late 20th century, some of which had sunset clauses at which point they would become fully locally owned.

“These JVEs typically also had explicit local talent training obligations. African companies and governments might take some time to learn from earlier East Asian JVE models, and work out the best equivalent for their own development,” Johnston said.

Once the driver of China's meteoric growth, private-sector companies in the country are struggling to bounce back from the pandemic downturn as they lose ground to a bloated public sector. Profits slide for first time while state-owned companies benefit more from stimulus.

Profits at private-sector industrial enterprises with mainline revenues of at least 20 million yuan ($2.9 million), including manufacturers, mining companies and electricity companies, fell 7.2% in 2022 in National Bureau of Statistics data. This marked the first decline since tracking began in 1997.

State-owned counterparts, in contrast, saw profits climb for a second straight year, by 3%. Overall industrial profits, including for foreign companies operating in China, fell for the first time in three years, by 4%.

The decline stemmed largely from China's zero-COVID restrictions, including a monthslong lockdown in Shanghai. Private-sector companies tend to sit further down the supply chain and struggled to pass along surging materials costs to customers amid cutthroat competition.

A record 18.5% of private-sector companies were losing money as of the end of 2022, nearly doubling from 8.8% five years earlier.

State-owned companies tend to be in fields higher up the supply chain, such as resource and materials processing. Rising resource prices thus lifted their profits. Hong Kong-listed units of three leading state-owned oil companies logged record January-June net profits in 2022.

State-owned companies enjoy greater access to low-interest financing, thanks to their government backing. They were also the main beneficiaries of China's COVID-19 stimulus measures, such as infrastructure development.

Majority state-owned companies accounted for 44.8% of the total market capitalization of China's top 100 listed companies at the end of 2022, according to the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The figure topped the share for companies that were less than 10% state-owned -- 42.8% -- for the first time in three years. The trend extends into other industries like real estate, which is estimated to account for 30% or so of China's gross domestic product.

Tougher financing restrictions implemented in 2020 and 2021 dealt a heavy blow to private-sector developers, pushing many to stop acquiring land rights for new condominium construction. Country Garden, China's leading developer, shrank such acquisitions in 2022 to a twentieth of the year before.

Private-sector developers' share of sales will eventually sink to around 10% to 20% from the current roughly 70%, brokerage BOC International (China) predicts. Financial authorities have urged state-owned companies to take over private-sector projects.

For Chinese President Xi Jinping, the growing footprint of state-owned companies makes it easier to manage the economy as a whole. The problem is that they tend to be inefficient. At the end of 2022, 24.5% of state-owned industrial companies were in the red.

The International Monetary Fund has expressed concern about the growing economic role played by China's state-owned enterprises. "As SOEs tend to be less productive, this risks further widening productivity gaps with advanced economies," the IMF said in a Feb. 3 report.

As the population shrinks and ages, there is concern that reduced productivity will exert further downward pressure on future growth.

The economy is at risk of "zombification," warned Wei Jianing, a research fellow at the Development Research Center of the State Council, in a December speech reported on by Radio Free Asia. He raised alarm over a bloated public sector and a weakened private sector.

China has tightened restrictions on Tibetan residents of Sichuan province's Drago county. The county has long been the centre of resistance to Chinese rule. The Chinese government has therefore imposed measures to prevent the resident's contact with people outside the area, sources with knowledge of the situation said, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.

According to RFA, the communications clampdown in Drago county is the latest measure by Chinese authorities to bring locals to heel following the demolitions of huge Buddha statues in the area in 2021, sources in the region said.

Drago county is called Luhuo in Chinese and lies in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province, the historical Tibetan province of Kham. "Beginning January this year, local Chinese authorities in Drago county have warned Tibetans living in the region to stop communicating with people outside Tibet," according to a source quoted by RFA.

"Their cell phones are randomly probed and restricted from sharing any kinds of information with the outside," he said. "They are also not allowed to contact their family members or send money," the source said.

Chinese authorities have ramped up repression of Tibetans and have been destroying significant religious structures while committing severe human rights violations in Drago county, according to a report issued in January by Free Tibet and its affiliated research arm Tibet Watch.

The demolition of Tibetan Buddhist sites escalated under Drago county Communist Party chief Wang Dongsheng, who had earlier overseen a campaign for the expulsion of Buddhist clergy and destruction at Sichuan's sprawling Larung Gar Buddhist Academy.

"Ever since Wang Dongsheng was appointed as county chief in Drago, the campaign against the Tibetans has gone from bad to worse," said another Tibetan who declined to be identified for fear of his safety, according to RFA.

"There have been massive communication clampdowns and other security measures have also been put into place. The staff and those with authority in the monasteries have been forced to attend re-education programs," he said.

A London-based non-profit independent think tank Open Forum organised a webinar on January 26 addressing the atrocities that China is making Tibetans go through. In the webinar, Tibet's activists in exile and campaign groups expressed how "systematically," and "brazenly" China is crushing Tibet's identity and culture when the world is busy doing trade with it.

Imagine demolishing the home you built with your own hand. This is the predicament of Tibetans living in the Drago county of the Tibetan province of Kham, 'known for their strong cultural and religious heritage, according to a ground-breaking report released by the London-based non-profit organization, Free Tibet on 23 January 2023 along with their charitable research arm, Tibet Watch.

China's President Xi Jinping's will be costly for China and its people, writes Ian Bremmer in Nikkei Asia. Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media and author of "The Power of Crisis," said that Xi's ability to make arbitrary decisions that impact the lives of billions of people is now unrivalled, following his emergence from last year's Communist Party national congress with tighter control over both the ruling party and China than any leader since Mao Zedong.

Xi's power has become a global problem, His refusal to import foreign-made mRNA vaccines has left China's 1.4 billion people far more vulnerable to COVID-19 than they should be. Xi's drive for control has produced considerable damage in other areas, as well, said Bremmer.

A secretive crackdown on private-sector technology companies, probably driven by fears they have too much influence over the flow of information in the country, has undermined China's ability to build groundbreaking new digital technologies and the confidence of international investors that China remains a safe place to invest. This has drained away a trillion dollars in market valuation from one of the most efficient areas of China's private sector, reported Nikkei Asia.

On foreign policy, Xi's announcement of a "no limits" friendship with Russia just three weeks before the invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated fears in America and Europe that he shares President Vladimir Putin's hunger to remake the international system. Moreover, the problem of "maximum Xi" will grow larger in 2023, said Bremmer.

First, the startling decision to end zero-COVID all at once and without careful preparation could kill a million or more Chinese people. Only an emperor could execute such an extraordinary and extraordinarily costly reversal, reported Nikkei Asia.

On the economy, Xi's drive for state control will produce decisions unchallenged by expert opinion and unaffected by a surge in policy uncertainty. This will be bad news for an economy already weakened by three years of COVID lockdowns, falling confidence in the all-important real estate sector and debt defaults that could undermine the country's financial sector, said Bremmer.

Finally, on foreign policy, Xi's nationalist views and assertive style will define Beijing's relations with rivals, allies and the very large number of governments that are deeply reluctant to risk becoming either. Given the scale and immediacy of the economic challenges at home, Xi knows his country cannot afford a near-term crisis. But "wolf warrior" diplomacy will intensify as diplomats echo Xi's aggressive foreign policy rhetoric.

The last time a Chinese leader had this much-unconstrained power, the result was widespread famine, economic ruin and the deaths of millions of people.

Amid the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases in China, the pharmaceutical industries are finding it difficult to cope with the high demand for medicines after the Xi Jinping-led government announced relaxations in its zero-Covid policy.

Many people have started resorting to consuming expired medicines due to the acute shortage of medicines in China, local media reported.

The local versions of Tylenol and Advil are nearly impossible to find at pharmacies in China, fueling anger across the nation, CNN reported in December. In order to calm panic buying, regional governments have initiated measures to limit sales and increase the supply of popular fever drugs.

China has even curbed the export of various raw materials used in the production of essential drugs, leading to shortages of these drugs in countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party’s announcement regarding relaxation of epidemic prevention and control measures from January 8 has triggered apprehensions across the country that COVID-19 cases could rise further.

Pharmaceutical companies in China are working at full capacity to ensure the supply of key medicines for COVID-19 control, Xinhua reported. Lanzhou Foci Pharmaceutical Co. in China’s Gansu province has been working to manufacture medications for cold and respiratory infections.

Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in China’s Shandong Province is specialized in producing fever reducers and pain relievers and it has increased the production of ibuprofen 24 hours a day to meet the demands, according to Xinhua.

Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd said that its capacity has reached 10,000 tablets of ibuprofen per minute, as per the Xinhua report. Furthermore, efforts have also been made to ensure targeted and reasonable medicine dispatching.

On December 20, over 500 drugstores in China’s Zhuhai city committed to “continuously supply” a number of fever-reducing medicines including ibuprofen, the municipal government said in a statement, according to CNN.

However, there are strict limits on what people can purchase. People can buy only one form of a particular fever drug. As per the CNN report, the sale of medicine has been restricted to a maximum of six tablets or 100 millilitres (3 ounces) of liquid per customer.

As per the CNN report, Nanjing has committed to ensuring the daily supply of medicines. However, they did not give details regarding the kind of medicine which must be split for purchase among 150 medicine stores.

From Heilongjiang to Hainan, dozens of companies in major Chinese pharmaceutical hubs said they were “going all out” to enhance the production of fever and antiviral medicines, according to CNN.

The government in Sichuan announced emergency measures authorizing payouts of up to USD 143,160 (one million yuan) per company to enable them to expand the production of COVID-related products.

“[We] support companies making antigen test kits or Covid drugs to work overtime for production, and will provide cash subsidies to employees from our provincial industrial development funds,” CNN quoted the notice published by the Sichuan government.

The Sichuan government added that the special subsidy would be valid until April 2023. Furthermore, Honz Pharmaceutical in a statement in December announced that the current shortage should be alleviated within two months.

“The current shortage should be alleviated within two months. With the intervention and regulation of the state, it may be brought forward,” CNN quoted Honz Pharmaceutical as saying in the statement.

In a move to suppress growing public angst against the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has launched yet another regulatory measure to curb the spread of information against the regime through mobiles or internet technologies. The Cyberspace Administration of China has issued regulatory orders to mobile phone and app makers to stop fixing apps that could help in easing uploading or downloading data or pics and create disorder in the society.

As per South China Morning Post, law taking effect from December 15 also requires social media and web video operators to remove harmful news-related comments or face a range of penalties. The Communist regime has clearly directed social media platforms that they must approve all news-related comments before they go online and step-up training for censors to keep out “harmful” contents. According to the Hong Kong-based news outlet, the new law is an updated and approved version of the 2017 Regulations on the Administration of Internet Post Comment Services.

This move has been taken up in the backdrop of a flood of protests China witnessed on account of public anger over zero-Covid policy-led lockdowns. Many people in China took to live streaming sites and social media to vent their anger over lockdowns, mass Covid testing and border controls. People shared videos or news articles about people under lockdown being denied medical help or having to go without food and water for several days.

Some posts showing people committing suicide by jumping off from their high-rise apartments had stirred anti-Jinping sentiments across China. Even as some most critical posts were removed from the internet, and a few people were detained for disrupting social order, the country could not escape from falling into a whirlwind of chaos and agitation.

There is a lingering fear among Chinese authorities that the country may witness more protests and violence in the coming days because of growing uncertainty in the Chinese market amidst economic slowdown.

The government campaign to rein in tech companies, the crisis in the real estate and housing sector and lockdowns have already escalated the employment problem in China.

According to Bloomberg, tens of millions of Chinese youths are unemployed in the country. Analysts say unemployment and economic slowdown, along with enduring US-China trade war have created a timebomb, which may explode anytime in the East Asian country.

China’s Communist regime seems to be not prepared to take any chances now. Before simmering discontent among youths against the regime snowballs into a mass anger and it witnesses nation-wide protests as seen this year in the last week of November and early days of December, it wants to place further restrictions on mobile and internet technologies.

According to South China Morning Post, while the Chinese regulator has not spelled out specific penalties for violations, but it has said, “app distribution platforms are responsible for taking appropriate moves to correct any issue” and that it would “take targeted measures” against platforms with severe problems and “implement those measures forcefully.”

In China internet censorship, colloquially known as the Great Firewall, has existed since 2000, when the country’s Ministry of Public Security launched the Golden Shield Project—a labyrinthine mechanism of censorship and surveillance aimed at restricting contents and identifying and locating individuals.

Despite the existence of such censorship mechanisms, Chinese youth saw the internet as a channel for new thinking. Chinese citizens could go online to expose government corruption and criticise leaders.

Online discussions were somewhat free and open, and young users were especially eager to learn and debate big ideas about the political system and how China should be governed. But this has changed since Xi Jinping became the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary and President of the country.

It became rather clear in December 2015, when during China’s second World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, a Southern Chinese city, amidst the presence of thousands of tech entrepreneurs, analysts and few heads of state, the Chinese President set out his vision for the future of the country’s internet.

He said, “We should respect the right of individual countries to independently choose their own path of cyber-development.” Xi Jinping’s statement was seen as a warning as to what would be the shape of cyberspace during his leadership; China’s internet would be a world unto itself with contents closely monitored and managed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Analysts say that from time to time, China has brought changes in internet technologies to suit its purpose to control the society. It passed new laws on what would be acceptable content, and severely punished those who tried to violate the new restrictions. “Foreign content providers found their access to China shrinking,” The Guardian said in a write up on China’s censorship mechanism.

Xi desired that Chinese companies dominate the country’s rapidly growing online space. Analysts say that no matter how harsh and effective censors are placed on the spread of information through mobile or internet technologies, Chinese people are innovative and smart and they will not stop from venting their frustration, which is piling up under the autocratic regime of the Communist Party of China.

A senior Chinese official has, inadvertently or otherwise, hit the nail on the head by reflecting on the current challenges his country faces, including the leadership challenge, and by quoting from the reports presented at the recent 20th Party Congress no less.

Of course, he wrote this much before the Covid-19 lockdown spree of the Xi Jinping administration, that resulted in people taking to the streets to give vent to their anger with the leadership’s zero-Covid policy, which reflects the fact that not everything is running smoothly in the country. 

Liu Haixing, deputy director of the Central National Security Commission office, recently wrote an article in People’s Daily on national security issues, calling for a deeper understanding of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, unswervingly implement the comprehensive national security concept, dare to struggle and be good at fighting, and continue to break new ground in the modernisation of national security in the new era”.

At the outset, however, Liu referred to several tests the Chinese Communist Party faces, such as the test of long-term rule, of reform and opening-up, of building a market economy and of the external environment. The reference to long-term rule is noteworthy with all its implications.

He goes on to write: “All these are long-term and complex tests. The risks from spiritual slackening (cadres losing faith basically or having insufficient sense of belief and purpose), lack of ability, separation from the masses, and passive corruption are acute and grave. The Party’s work style and clean government construction and anti-corruption efforts also face stubborn and recurring problems.”

A near-prescient observation as the Covid unrest unravels, astounding the party leadership for the first time since the Tiananmen Square protests. 
Haixing feels that the national challenges facing the communist government are bound to create new problems in the coming days. Needless to say, he refrains from explaining who or what is causing the problems.

According to him, doing a good job in regard to national security is an inevitable requirement for building a modern socialist power and realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

As the theory goes, the more socialist China develops and expands, the more Chinese-style modernisation moves forward and expands, the greater the resistance and pressure it will encounter, and the more problems and difficulties it will face.

“We must strengthen our sense of urgency, adhere to the bottom-line thinking, be prepared for danger in times of peace, prepare for a rainy day, be prepared to withstand the great test of high waves and turbulent storms, and constantly build a solid national security barrier.”

He then talks about the risks and challenges that China faces, quoting President Xi Jinping’s report at the 20th Party Congress that states how the country has entered a period of development in which strategic opportunities, risks, and challenges are concurrent and uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising. Various ‘black swan’ and ‘gray rhino’ events may occur at any time, is the warning that Haixing offers.

That is obliquely admitting that the top Chinese leadership is aware of the impact of current inadequacies. Furthermore, Liu explains the external environment China faces today. It can be safely assumed that his statement is not entirely different from what the leadership feels. The external environment remains unstable and uncertain. In the new era, the international balance of power is undergoing profound adjustment; unilateralism, protectionism, hegemonism, and power politics are posing increasing threats to world peace and security; anti-globalisation trends are rising.

“The Cold-War mentality has been partially revived, and the combined impact of the once-in-a-century changes and the once-in-a-century epidemic has brought the world into a new period of turbulent change. The outbreak of the Ukraine crisis; the increasingly acute and complex nature of challenges like climate change, food security, energy security, and the emergence of regional hotspots and local conflicts have all made the international situation volatile; their efforts to contain and suppress China have continued to increase, and could escalate at any time.” 

About the domestic challenges, Liu argues that the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development is still prominent, economic development is facing the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shock and weakening expectations, the reform task in key areas is still arduous, key bottlenecks persist in terms of China’s science and technology innovation capacity, there is a major test with regard to the security of supply chains related to food, energy, resources, finance and industrial chains, there are many challenges in the ideological field, the risk exposure in key areas has increased, the superposition, linkage, conduction and resonance effects of various risks are enhanced.

At the end of a long-drawn article where Liu enunciates the principles of national security, he returns to the faithful leadership theme where all ideas in China, whether of policy, personality or change converge: “Firmly safeguard the security of state power, system and ideology; with regard to sensitive factors and incipient tendencies that can easily induce political problems, especially major emergencies, we should keep our eyes open, see things early, and act quickly to promptly remove potential political dangers, and severely crack down on infiltration, sabotage, subversion, and separatist activities by hostile forces.”

From manned submarines to underwater drones, China’s stepped-up deployments in the region are concerning to India.

According to the United States’ “China’s Military Power Report 2022,” China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is “numerically” the largest navy in the world. The report also highlights that the PLA support base in Djibouti is going to play a crucial role in providing China the capacity to “project and sustain military power at a greater distance.” 

The PLA has constructed a 300-meter-long berthing area, which is now ready to accommodate larger vessels like aircraft carriers, submarines, and amphibious vessels in the future. Experts also point out China may build additional facilities like drydock and repair facilities for both surface ships and submarines. 

Since it officially opened in 2017, the support base has been undergoing construction of new piers and is also suspected to have an underground electronic and cybersecurity facility. The support base is actively engaged in military exercises and outreach activities to demonstrate its presence in the region.

Even though China presented the Djibouti base to the international community as a “logistic facility” or “support base,” the latest development activity shows it has truly become a complete naval base. As China seeks to expand its presence in the Indian Ocean region (IOR) through economic and commercial activity, the operation of new piers in Djibouti – and as a result, the increasing presence of Chinese submarines, survey and hydrographic ships close to Indian coasts – calls for greater security concern in India. 

The PLAN presence in the Indian Ocean has been growing steadily since 2009. When piracy and hijacking ships for ransoms in the Gulf of Aden were disturbing global energy and trade routes, China joined the international effort to police the regional waters. Even today, a major justification for the PLAN presence is to ensure the security of their commercial engagements and maritime trade. Since 2013, Chinese submarines have been in the Indian Ocean, and they claim to be deployed for anti-piracy duties. 

Chinese submarines use the Malacca, Lombok, or Sunda Straits to reach the Indian Ocean. The Sunda Straits are very shallow, with a mean depth of 50 meters. Sandbanks, the presence of oil platforms in the Sunda shelf, and the active presence of fishing vessels render it difficult to navigate in these waters.

The Lombok Strait is deep enough for submarines to proceed in the normal mode of navigation. In the case of the Malacca Strait, to ensure navigation safety Chinese submarines have to navigate on the surface. The submarines are often accompanied by submarine-tender ships, a giveaway for the presence of the Chinese submarine.

The deployment of submarines along with PLAN’s survey and hydrographic ships in the Indian Ocean has become a regular feature since 2017. According to Indian news reports, in 2017, the PLAN’s top naval survey ship – the Type 636A hydrographic survey ship Haiyang Class 22 – was surveying the waters of the Indian Ocean, in all probability charting for better submarine operations. 

In 2018, the PLAN’s modern Type 625C Shiyan 3 Oceanographic Survey Ship surveyed the Makran Trench in the Persian Gulf as part of its maritime exercise with the Pakistan Navy. In the same year, the Xiang Yang Hong 10 was deployed in the Indian Ocean to survey the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) contract zone in the Southwest Indian Ocean. 

Since 2019, Chinese survey ships like the Xiang Yang Hong 03 have surveyed the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the water west of Indonesia, considered an important area of submarine operations for both India and Australia.

China has also deployed a fleet of underwater drones in the Indian Ocean to study the aquatic environment, hydrography, bathymetric conditions, sea-water temperature and salinity etc. which can be used for military applications to get better sonar performance of Chinese submarines as well as to improve the detection capability of Chinese anti-submarine warfare (ASW) assets in these waters. 

The use of a sea-glider by China grabbed global media attention when one of the Haiyi gliders was captured by an Indonesian fisherman off Selayar Island in South Sulawesi province in December 2019.

China is also focusing on building new generations of underwater gliders and Argo floats for specific military purposes. Notably, an underwater acoustic glider, which is currently under development, can be a real game changer for China in detecting and tracking submarines in the Indian Ocean. 

The increasing presence of Chinese state-run hydrographic ships, and survey vessels will facilitate future deployment of Chinese SSBNs and SSNs in the Indian Ocean. Unlike the West Pacific, which is crawling with U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force submarines and ASW ships monitoring PLAN submarine movements, the Indian Ocean is relatively safe for Chinese submarines to operate.

However, passing choke points without being detected is going to remain a major challenge for Chinese submarines entering the Indian Ocean. The Djibouti support base can help to overcome this fundamental problem, and the deployment of submarines to this base looks like the next possible move by Beijing to expand its influence in the region.

China’s naval base in Djibouti and the growing presence of PLAN ships, submarines and research vessels in the Indian Ocean is a call for greater concern in New Delhi. It not only challenges India’s sphere of influence in the region but also raises the risk of security threats when Chinese vessels operate close to India’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

In 2022, India had to postpone missile tests due to the presence of Chinese surveillance vessels Yuan Wang 6 and Yuan Wang 5 in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, India is also suspicious of Chinese deep-sea fishing vessels spying on Indian missile launch facilities, naval bases, and vessel movement in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. 

India needs to strengthen its underwater domain capability and requires a fresh rethink on the concept of undersea warfare to deal with the emerging underwater threat from China in the Indian Ocean.

The Kenyan government has published three unforeseen contracts, using which, a railway, a passenger and a freight service were funded, designed and built by China.

Experts on China and Africa said the revelations were unprecedented, given the secrecy surrounding Chinese loan contracts. Furthermore, because China is Kenya's top trading partner, the African country now owes China an excessive bilateral debt.

"Chinese financial institutions provide financing support for China-Kenya cooperation in accordance with internationally accepted commercial and market principles, which alleviated Kenya's lack of funds and enhanced Kenya's capacity for independent development," a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry said, reported the New York Times.

Chinese banks fined Kenya 1.312 billion Kenyan shillings in the year ended June for defaults on loans provided to build the standard gauge railway (SGR).

Kenya tapped over half a trillion shillings from Chinese lenders, led by the Export-Import Bank of China, to fund the construction of the SGR from Mombasa to Naivasha.

China, which accounted for about one-third of Kenya's 2021-22 external debt service costs, is the nation's biggest foreign creditor after the World Bank. Kenya spent a total of Sh 117.7 billion on Chinese debt in the period, of which about Sh 24.7 billion is in interest payments and almost Sh 93 billion in redemptions, according to budget documents.

The deal to fund the first phase of the SGR, Kenya's single-largest infrastructure project by cost since independence, saw China overtake Japan as Kenya's largest bilateral lender. Kenya's debt increased more than four-fold to Sh 8.58 trillion under the Kenyatta administration.

In its latest repression of the media, the Taliban banned a foreign journalist Stefanie Glinski from entering Afghanistan over her critical reporting on the war-torn country.

Glinski, who is also a photographer has been barred by the terror outfit for reporting in Afghanistan. The incident has sparked rage among various organizations as it is the most recent incident of a crackdown on international media in Afghanistan, Khaama Press reported.

The International Federation of Journalists denounced the travel restriction placed on journalists visiting Kabul and described them as a barrier to free speech and the "persecution" of journalists, according to Khaama Press.

Stefanie Glinski, who is now banned by the Taliban to enter Kabul has also claimed previously that the terror outfit harassed her via WhatsApp and claimed the organization searched for her news sources. The journalist has spent four years in Afghanistan reporting for various news organizations, including The Guardian and Foreign Policy.

Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, restrictions on media have escalated, and hundreds of media outlets have closed.

Under the current Taliban regime, Afghan journalists suffer from various problems including censorship, restrictions, and access to information.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Taliban have intensified attacks on the media as journalists in the country said that it's hard to report from Afghanistan anymore.

Journalists pointed out that Taliban intelligence officials hold regular meetings with the media to inform them of any new rules. In some cases, journalists have reported that they have been harassed, beaten, and arbitrarily detained without explanation.

The head of Britain's cyber intelligence agency on Tuesday accused China of trying to "rewrite the rules of international security," saying Beijing is using its economic and technological clout to clamp down at home and exert control abroad.

Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, said that despite war raging in Europe since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Beijing's growing power is the "national security issue that will define our future."

In a rare public speech to the Royal United Services Institute think tank, Fleming alleged that Beijing's communist authorities want to "gain strategic advantage by shaping the world's technology ecosystems."

"When it comes to technology, the politically motivated actions of the Chinese state is an increasingly urgent problem we must acknowledge and address," Fleming said. "That's because it's changing the definition of national security into a much broader concept. Technology has become not just an area for opportunity, for competition and for collaboration, it's become a battleground for control, for values and for influence."

He argued that the one-party system in Beijing seeks to control China's population and sees other countries "as either potential adversaries or potential client states, to be threatened, bribed or coerced."

Relations between Britain and China have grown increasingly frosty in recent years, with U.K. officials accusing Beijing of economic subterfuge and human rights abuses.

British spies have given increasingly negative assessments of Beijing's influence and intentions. Last year the head of the MI6 overseas intelligence agency, Richard Moore, called China one of the biggest threats to Britain and its allies.

In 2020, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson followed the United States in banning Chinese tech firm Huawei as a security risk, ordering it to be stripped out of the U.K.'s 5G telecoms network by 2027.

Fleming warned that China is seeking to fragment the infrastructure of the internet to exert greater control. He also said China is seeking to use digital currencies used by central banks to snoop on users' transactions and as a way of avoiding future international sanctions of the sort imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Fleming argued that China's BeiDou satellite system — an alternative to the widely used GPS navigation technology — could contain "a powerful anti-satellite capability, with a doctrine of denying other nations access to space in the event of a conflict."

Fleming warned that the world is approaching a "sliding doors" moment in history — a reference to the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow film in which a woman's fate hinges on a seemingly trivial moment.

He called on Western firms and researchers to toughen intellectual property protections and for democratic countries to develop alternatives that can prevent developing nations from "mortgaging the future by buying into the Chinese vision for technology."

He said the world's democracies can't afford to fall behind in cutting-edge fields such as quantum computing, and warned of a potential weakness over semiconductors, the critical chips used in everyday electronics. Taiwan — which China regards as a breakaway province to be reclaimed by force if necessary — is a world leader in their production.

"Events in the Taiwan Straits — any risk to that vital supply chain — have the potential to directly impact the resilience of the U.K. and global future growth," Fleming said.

Fleming also addressed the war in Ukraine, saying Russia is running short of weapons and Ukraine's "courageous action on the battlefield and in cyberspace is turning the tide."

"Russia's forces are exhausted," he said. "The use of prisoners as reinforcements, and now the mobilization of tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts, speaks of a desperate situation."

GCHQ, formally known as the Government Communications Headquarters, is one of Britain's three main intelligence agencies, alongside MI5 and MI6. It did not disclose the sources of its intelligence on China and Russia.

In what has been termed breach of diplomatic etiquette, China skipped Bangladesh’s discussion over Myanmar's military activities on the border.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had called the ambassadors and high commissioners of non-ASEAN countries working in Dhaka to inform them about heightened tensions on the boundary between both countries.

However, the Chinese ambassador, Li Ji Ming did not participate in the deliberations. Dhaka did not take China's non-response as normal.  The Ministry of External Affairs says they have "noticed" the matter. 

On the other hand, experts say that they are not "surprised" by China's stance on Myanmar. This meeting was held on Tuesday morning at Rashtriya Guest House Padma.  Ambassadors of Russia and India were not present but sent representatives.

Only China is absent. In addition to the European Union member countries, representatives of almost all countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Egypt, South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Japan participated in the meeting. Experts see China's absence as a breach of diplomatic etiquette. 

At the same time, they consider this incident as China's clear support for Myanmar. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who did not wish to be named, told NewsBangla, "Although the heads of missions of almost all countries were called at a very short notice, they or their representatives came."  However, we did not find any representative of China.

The ambassador might be busy with important work, but he could send a representative if he wanted.  We are a little surprised that it was not sent. This meeting was held on Tuesday morning at Rashtriya Guest House Padma. Ambassadors of Russia and India were not present but sent representatives. Only China is absent.

China, a country notorious for trying to take advantage of smaller, cash-strapped economies, is now taking advantage of the security vacuum in Iraq created by the United States’ withdrawal from the West Asian country to align with groups militias to gain a foothold in the country’s lucrative oil industry, the media reported.

China’s increasing control over oil is now a major concern for resource-rich Iraq. Beijing has always resorted to using shrewd tactics to trap these countries and later cripple them economically, and now it is using the same tactics in an attempt to gain control of this West Asian country, according to the Washington Post.

Two decades ago, in 2003, the United States invaded Iraq to free the Iraqi people from the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein. Today, Baghdad is witnessing the rise of China’s influence, a prime example of Beijing seeing the security vacuum as an opportune time to dominate Iraq.

China has made many attempts to seize control of Iraq’s oil and oil resources. However, each attempt was thwarted by Iraq’s Ministry of Oil. Russia’s Lukoil and US oil giant Exxon Mobil wanted to sell their stakes in major fields to companies backed by the Chinese government, but the Iraqi Ministry of Oil’s intervention prevented that.

Even British BP considered selling a stake to a Chinese company, but was dissuaded by Iraqi officials. In a scenario where China succeeds in derailing the deal, it could well trigger an “exit” of international oil giants that would leave Iraq open to a wider takeover by Beijing, according to the Washington Post.

This growing Chinese expansion into Iraq is a cause for concern as the Iraqi government has expressed deep concern over China’s attempt to virtually take over the Middle Eastern country. Recently, there was also a protest near the headquarters of the Chinese oil company in the southeastern Iraqi province of Maysan.

This reflects Iraq’s growing concern over China’s expansion into the oil sector. Moreover, even think tanks are also now talking about China.

The Washington Post cites the Italian think tank Geopolitica and notes that China is taking advantage of the security vacuum in Iraq created by the withdrawal of the United States from the West Asian country, and its companies are teaming up with militia groups to gain a foothold in the Iraqi oil industry.

According to a report by the Financial Times, cited by an American media portal, in 2021 alone, Beijing has signed deals worth $10.5 billion in Iraq’s construction sector.

Iraq, China’s third-largest oil exporter, is keen to secure Chinese investment in infrastructure development. This is because several US and European companies have been reluctant to invest in Iraq due to rampant corruption and militias (reportedly loyal to Iran) targeting US coalition forces and Western interests.

Although China prefers to work with strong and centralized state authorities, it has found ways to deal with an unstable Iraq. China is becoming ambitious in expanding its influence in various key sectors of Iraq, namely communications and trade.

Moreover, Washington cited a recent Shanghai Fudan University report for 2021 and noted that Beijing had signed $10.5 billion in new construction deals in Iraq, nearly one-sixth of China’s investment in the Belt and Road Initiative that year.

For China, Iraq has become the number one trading partner in the region and the third largest supplier of oil, just behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. Its energy reserves and strategic location – near the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz – are proving critical to the BRI.

China’s crackdown on Iraq is aimed not only at strengthening economic ties between the two countries, but also at leveraging all of this and turning it into increased political influence over a period of time. The US withdrawal from Iraq led to an increase in Chinese power in Iraq.

According to the media portal, three countries – the United States, Iran and Turkey – are watching the build-up of Chinese power in the West Asian region, as they remain actively and deeply connected to Iraq.

Afghan women under Taliban rule: It has been over 300 days since girls' schools have been closed, Kabul's officials have said that it depends upon the order of the leader of the Taliban.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths called out the Taliban for reopening girls' schools in a statement on Tuesday and said that the situation of Afghan women and girls is regressing.

"Women and girls are facing alarming rollback on their rights," said Martin Griffiths.
In a statement, "Girls' schools have been closed to female students for a year. One of the presidents of India has said that "Even if I die, don't close girls' schools because a generation will miss one day of education," Khaama Press reported citing a student, Shabana.

"I ask them to reopen schools, it is our right and we have to get our rights," said Parwana, another student. Previously, Amnesty International has said that women and girls have been stripped of their rights and face a bleak future, according to Khaama Press.

"Arbitrary detentions, torture, disappearances, summary executions have returned as the order of the day. Women and girls have been stripped of their rights and face a bleak future, deprived of education or the possibility of taking part in public life," Amnesty International's South Asia Regional Director, Yamini Mishra said.

"The doors of the schools have been closed for a year, while officials and international organizations worsen the situation, and none of them takes any concrete effort to get out of this situation," said Ai Noor Uzbek, a women's rights activist, condemning the situation of Afghanistan and the atrocious regime of Taliban.

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has drawn heavy criticism across the world for a decree banning girls from school above grade sixth. It has been over 300 days since girls' schools have been closed, Kabul's officials have said that it depends upon the order of the leader of the Taliban.

A decision taken by the Taliban prevented girls from returning to secondary school which meant that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education. At the same time, access to justice for victims of gender-based violence has been limited by the dissolution of dedicated reporting pathways, justice mechanisms and shelters.

Earlier, UN Rights Chief, Michele Bachelet also expressed concern over alleged Human Rights Violations and abuses against civilians in the northern provinces, including arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, and torture, calling on all parties to the conflict to "observe restraint and to fully respect international human rights law".

"Restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in public affairs have all had a chilling effect on individuals and communities," the chief stated.

And despite Taliban authorities' repeated commitments to respect human rights, civic space has shrunk rapidly and dramatically since their return to Kabul.

The plight of Afghan women has continued to be deplorable in the country. Contrary to the Taliban's claims, girls were stopped from going to school beyond sixth grade on March 23 and a decree against the women's dress code was issued after a month.

There are restrictions on movement, education and freedom of expression of women posing a threat to their survival.

Not only this, the lack of female healthcare workers has prevented the women from accessing basic medical facilities, and the international donors, who fund 90 per cent of health clinics, are hesitant to send money because of their fear of the funds being misused.

Around 80 per cent of women working in the media have lost their jobs, and almost 18 million women in the country are struggling for health, education and social rights.

China-promoted Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is currently at a crucial point due to mismanagement as several key projects under its umbrella have either failed to take off or produced mixed to poor results.

As a result of this, China’s quest to acquire global dominance has taken a severe hit.

The BRI, which was announced as the “Silk Road” in a speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, came into being in April 2015 with the announcement of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), stretching from Gwadar to the Chinese city of Kashgar in Xinjiang.

When the CPEC agreements were signed, Pakistan’s government called Gwadar “the economic future of Pakistan,” however the CPEC is on the verge of crisis, as is the BRI itself due to mismanagement, debt crises and corruption that have left many projects unfinished converting the initial optimism into extreme dissappointment.

Many headline projects have either failed to get off the ground or have produced unfavourable results.

Both Pakistan and China claimed that Gwadar’s gross domestic product would increase from an estimated USD 430 million in 2017 to USD 30 billion by 2050, and produce 1.2 million jobs for a population that currently stands at 90,000 but the initiative is now at its worst and sees no hope.

China announced a huge list of development projects in Gwadar — a new airport, the Gwadar Free Zone, a 300-megawatt coal power plant and a water desalination plant but none of these have been completed till date, reported Nikkei Asia.

A 300-MW power plant was to be built in Gwadar but so far the work has not started. The power shortage is the biggest roadblock for any meaningful development in the region. Adding to this is a chronic water shortage that creates unrest every summer as the government trucks in water for residents.

There is a small desalination plant, but it is run only for the benefit of the Chinese workers, stated Nikkei Asia citing sources.

China has become more risk averse with regard to its BRI projects given its own domestic economic challenges and increasing backlash against the BRI in many host countries.

Some countries are scaling down or scrapping entire projects that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative amid mounting financial concerns over the continent-spanning venture.

Notably, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has jolted the financial stability of many other countries including Pakistan which faces a severe deficit in trade balance with Beijing.

Owing to border demarcation disputes between Beijing and Naypyidaw, China has cut off electricity in the northern Shan State of Myanmar for nearly nine months, media reported quoting residents.

The residents of the Myanmar village claim that China is trying to encroach and grab their lands near the border, reported The Irrawaddy.
Nawng Kham village in Namkham Township (in Shan State) is to the north of the Shweli River and was supposed to be supplied electricity by the Chinese border village of Nawng Hsawng.

A joint venture between Myanmar's electricity ministry and China's Yunnan United Power Development Co Ltd, the Shweli 1 hydropower project, is near the village but has never supplied it with power.

As per Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) reports this week, China has cut the power in July 2021 over the demarcation dispute.

China has been attempting to build fences over its border with Myanmar citing the prevention of the spread of coronavirus. In October 2020, the Chinese authorities started building a double layer of border fencing, 15 to 20 meters apart, near Nawng Kham.

According to the reports, the fence is 7 meters high on the Chinese side and 5 meters on Myanmar's side and cuts through fields stretching across the border. In July last year, Beijing attempted twice to build more fences on Nawng Kham villagers' fields however it later stopped because of protests.

In a conversation with Myanmar's local media outlet, The Irrawaddy, an SHRF spokesman said, "The Chinese have not encroached since the dispute over the border fence. But they still plan to build a bridge near the fence. Farmers fear they might lose land again because they encroached when they erected the fence in 2021. Because of those disputes, electricity has been cut off to Nawng Kham since October 2021."

The power cuts began after July last year. The power was briefly restored in October however only to be cut again on October 19 after a house in Nawng Kham caught fire.

"Some villagers can afford generators and solar panels. But rising diesel prices mean they can't run generators anymore. They asked Myanmar's authorities to supply electricity but they were told to buy power from China," said the spokesman.

Myanmar's Nawng Kham has 161 homes and around 2,000 residents. Villagers have been buying Chinese electricity for 20 years and paid for Chinese meters in 2002. Costs fell by about 40 percent when the Shweli project opened, according to the report.

A villager said, "I think they cut off the power because we opposed the land grab. When we filed a complaint they said they were too busy to handle it."

Notably, a bilateral protocol was signed in 1961 for the 2,227 km border agreeing to conduct joint demarcation inspections every five years, although this only occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. The agreement banned construction near the border.

During the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Asif Panwhar, member of World Sindhi Congress (WSC) called on the Council to look into the gross human rights violations of Sindhi people in Pakistan and urged to take action to protect their right of peaceful assembly and association.

On 17th June, during the UNHRC session, Panhwar presented the cases of arrests against peaceful participants.

The WSC member highlighted how those who were paying tribute to GM Syed, the founder of Sindhi nationalist movement, on his 27th death anniversary were being harassed by the Pakistani police.

“We would like to bring to your notice, the onslaught of the freedom of peaceful assembly and association of Sindhi people in Pakistan. On April 25, 2022 police rangers and agencies man-handled and humiliated hundreds of people including women and children who were going to pay tributes to GM Syed,” he said.

He noted that FIR was registered against 190 persons under sedition and terrorism charges and 87 people were arrested including 25 women. The cases of the arrested are being tried in the anti-terrorist courts, Panhwar added.

According to the human rights activists, a crackdown happened against many people when they held a peaceful protest for environmental justice and to save the lands of the indigenous communities illegally occupied by Bahrai town Karachi (Islamabad-based privately owned real-estate development company). He spoke about the forced acquisition of lands and evictions.

He said that during this crackdown in June 2021, hundreds were arrested and cases were registered under sedition and terrorism charges. The WSC member also stated that the Sindhi nationalist leader Aslam Khairpuri was also arrested and tried under sedition and terrorism charges.

The activist requested the UNHRC to press upon Pakistan to stop these grave violations of Sindhi People.

The WSC member expressed concern over the ongoing situation and said, “Sadly this has become a norm in Pakistan to harass and curb the peaceful democratic rise movement of Sindhi people. We request you to commission an inquiry on these gross human rights violations and take action to protect the rights of the Sindhi people for peaceful assembly and association.”