How would you feel if a stranger from a far-away city suddenly showed up outside your home and, claiming to be your relative, asked to stay for a week? The uninvited “relative” comes bearing gifts, but once ensconced in your home, starts grilling your family on the minutiae of their daily lives, jotting down answers in a notebook. You watch helplessly as your serially inquisitive houseguest from hell inspects your home for religious iconography, while your every action is carefully observed and logged.
Last week, an investigation by the Associated Press — confirmed by Chinese state media — revealed that beginning last year, 1.1 million Han Chinese local government officials have been fanning out across China’s Xinjiang region to spy on ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in so-called “cultural exchanges.”
As evidence builds of an expanding network of facial recognition-equipped closed-circuit TV cameras, checkpoints and “re-education camps” estimated to hold up to 1 million Uighurs and Muslim minorities, less attention has been given to a new form of intrusive state surveillance that places Chinese Communist Party officials into the last remaining sanctuary of the region’s embattled residents: their homes.
Xinjiang has become a dystopian neo-Stalinist police state, where regular visits by Han Chinese informers are designed to bring to the attention of the authorities any individuals whose first allegiance appears to be to their religion or ethnic group, rather than the party and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The ChinaFile Web site in October published a report by anthropologist and regular visitor to the region Darren Byler that highlighted some of the techniques employed by visiting “relatives.”
“One could offer a host a cigarette or a sip of beer; a hand could be extended in greeting to a little sibling of the opposite gender, staying alert for signs of flinching. Or one could go out to the market for some freshly ground meat and propose that the family make dumplings. And then wait and watch to see if the Uighurs would ask what kind of meat was in the bag,” the report said.
A single false move or an unguarded remark would likely result in the family being informed upon and carted away to a re-education camp for months or even years of “corrective education.”
Meanwhile, award-wining Chinese photographer Lu Guang (盧廣), who lives in New York City with his wife, Xu Xiaoli (徐小莉), last month vanished while traveling through Xinjiang.
Xu, who last heard from her husband on Nov. 3, told reporters that she believes he was arrested by state security agents.
Lu’s photography focuses on environmental and societal issues in China. It is yet more evidence — if it were needed — of the increasingly wild paranoia of China’s police state. Now, it seems that even photography that occasionally depicts Chinese society in an unflattering light is forbidden.
Last month, Taiwan’s democracy achieved another milestone by successfully holding free and fair local elections together with a record 10 referendums. Although the results have left many voters disappointed, that another round of elections have passed peacefully, with the results accepted by the losing side, should be a cause for celebration, not despair.
Despite its many defects and deficiencies, Taiwan’s democracy is a beacon of hope for the downtrodden citizens of China and other dictatorships around the world.
As British statesman Winston Churchill once famously said: “democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing