Latest: After being detained for almost 4 years, Chinese activist #HuangQi finally got to meet his 87-year-old mother for the first time. Huang was only given two eggs per week and his hands and feet were both swollen due to possible malnutrition.dw.com/zh/%E5%85%B3%E…
His mom, Pu Wenqing told friends in a series of audio recording that she has asked Huang to try to call her one more day each week but she wasn't sure if the prison authorities will approve such request or not.
According to her, Huang's lawyers have not been able to visit him due to anti-pandemic measures, and she wasn't sure when the Chinese government will loosen relevant measures. "Even when they loosen the preventative measures, the justice department need to send a ...
... notification to the local justice department in Sichuan, then the justice department will forward the notification to the prison, then the prison will try to arrange meeting between Huang and his lawyers. "I'm not sure how much longer he will have to wait."
Pu, who was 87 and has been suffering from multiple chronic illness including diabetes and a cancer, said she will try to stay alive until Huang is released from prison. Huang was given a 12-year sentence in July 2019 for operating a website containing sensitive content.
"My diabetic complication has reached stage four and my original doctor told me that he didn't want to treat me because my complications were 'special.' He asked me to transfer to a more senior doctor."
Eventually, the doctor only gave Pu painkillers worth 6.5 RMB. She said other than easing her physical pain, the medication does nothing else. "Even though I'm living in despair, I still hope to live one more day because I hope I can wait until my son is released."
"These are merely my wishes, and I think it's impossible to fulfill them in reality," Pu said in the audio recording. In fact, Pu issued a public letter titled "the last confession from Huang Qi's mother," in which she detailed her health conditions and how she ...
... has been threatened by local police not to go to #Beijing, not to take any media interviews, not to meet anyone who has spoken out for Huang Qi and she needs the police's approval before she can hire a lawyer. She is also banned from hiring human rights lawyers.
Apart from suffering from multiple kinds of illnesses, Pu's cancer has also reportedly spread to all parts of her body. Her biggest wish was to be able to see Huang again in her life time. It happened on September 17.
When I tried to contact her this morning, she sent me a 5-second audio message, saying she really can't take any interviews at this point but thanking the international community for paying attention to Huang's case.
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A day after China warned its three military ships would be live weapons testing between New Zealand and Australia, the Cook Islands has today released a controversial agreement indicating #Beijing has secured a maritime presence there.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Deepening Blue Economy Cooperation shows a raft of partnerships including building ports and ships, many of which will be problematic from New Zealand's security perspective.
The MoU, signed in Harbin, northern China on February 14, lays out investment cooperation in port wharves, shipbuilding and ship repair, ocean transportation, and deep-sea fishing bases.
Chinese hackers breached the US government office that reviews foreign investments for national security risks, three US officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
The theft, which has not previously been reported, underscores Beijing’s keen interest in spying on a US government office that has broad powers to block Chinese investment in the US as tensions between the world’s two superpowers remain high.
The breach was part of a broader incursion by the hackers into the Treasury Department’s unclassified system.
China’s United Front influence and outreach operations are recruiting children and young adults in #Taiwan for heavily subsidized tours to the northwestern region of Xinjiang, in a bid to distract them from widespread human rights abuses in the region.
The Xinjiang Provincial Federation of Taiwan Compatriots, a United Front organization based in Urumqi, recently advertised a nine-day tour to Xinjiang on Taiwan’s PTT Bulletin Board discussion forum, calling for participants aged 16-40.
When Radio Free Asia contacted the organizers, they said participants would only need to pay NT$24,800 (US$755) per person, with “tour fees, transportation, accommodation and insurance all covered by the Chinese hosts.”
United States President Joe Biden on Friday (Dec 20) approved US$571.3 million in defence assistance for #Taiwan, the White House said, as the Democrat prepares to leave office ahead of the January inauguration of Donald Trump.
In a brief statement, the White House said Biden had authorised his secretary of state to "direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defence articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan".
The statement did not provide details of the military assistance package, which comes less than three months after a similar package worth US$567 million was authorised.
My latest: #China has sent officials to the Russian central bank to study the effects of Western sanctions for a better understanding of how it would be affected if it were to invade Taiwan.
Beijing had already set up a task force months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, which was tasked with producing reports about the impacts of Western sanctions on the Russian economy.
China is “very interested” in “practically everything” about the sanctions, including potentially positive effects on domestic production, a person with knowledge of the specialist task force told the Wall Street Journal.
A Beijing court sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday to seven years in prison for espionage, a family member told Reuters.
Former Guangming Daily editor and journalist Dong Yuyu, 62, was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, according to a statement from the US National Press Club, and later charged with espionage.
There was a heavy police presence outside Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court, with at least seven police cars parked nearby. Reuters journalists were asked to leave the area.