By @jwassers: "One thing to watch for now is how much the apartment-building tragedy in Urumqi affects discussions in #China of the discrimination against such Turkic Muslim groups, including grave human-rights abuses, in #Xinjiang." theatlantic.com/international/…
"Two kinds of deaths, one of ordinary people and the other of famous ones, periodically pose special challenges for the Chinese Communist Party.
Both types can give rise to immediate vigils and later anniversary commemorations that become occasions for an outpouring of popular sentiment that turns from grief to anger—with sharp criticism of the authorities licensed by mourning."
"For today’s CCP leaders, who are well aware of such precedents, the last week of November was a nervous one. This was because both kinds of death occurred in short order."
"A theme of the unrest was that the COVID measures designed to protect lives were sometimes endangering them: One of the labor conditions provoking discontent was that healthy workers could be confined in close quarters with ones who were sick."
"Though different from the vigils that came later in the month, social-media posts about the factory unrest gave people a prior sense that protest was in the air."
"We can also expect November 24 to have a place on the political calendar as another anniversary potentially marked with expressions of sorrow that may take on a political edge.
The anniversaries of tragedies involving the deaths of ordinary citizens have proved in China even more potent than those commemorating famous figures."
"Proof of that anniversary’s potency comes every year in the steps authorities take to prevent its being marked at all. Until recently, the way activists in Hong Kong observed the June 4 massacre offered a striking contrast with the absence of any commemoration on the mainland."
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Breaking: Japan decided Friday to acquire the capability to strike enemy bases as well as to double defense spending in a dramatic shift in its postwar security policy maintained under the nation's war-renouncing Constitution. english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/12/0…
Japan's ruling parties endorsed Friday a plan to raise taxes to fund a substantial increase in defense spending but postponed deciding when to do so amid turmoil caused by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida abruptly floating the idea. english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/12/1…
The government plans to increase corporate and tobacco taxes, alongside imposing a defense tax to boost defense spending to a total of 43 trillion yen ($312 billion) over the next five years, bringing it to a level equivalent to 2 percent of annual gross domestic product.
In a new report, @citizenlab finds that police in #China have been carrying out a large-scale iris scan collection campaign in the western Qinghai province. I talked to @emiledirks about how the campaign reflects #Beijing's biometric surveillance schemes: dw.com/zh/%E4%B8%AD%E…
"Building on Bitter Winter’s work, this report finds further evidence of police-led mass iris scan collection in Qinghai, a region with a population that is 49.4% non-Han, including Tibetans and Hui Muslims," the report said.
"Based on our analysis of these 53 reports, we estimate that between March 2019 and July 2022, police may have collected between roughly 1,248,075 and 1,452,035 iris scans, representing between one fifth (21.1%) and one quarter (25.6%) of Qinghai’s total population (5.9 million).
"The legal process in Lai’s case – from his prosecution, prolonged detention, designation of national security judges and denial of a foreign lawyer – was part of a “sham trial” being manipulated by China, said #Taiwan-based #HongKong lawyer Sang Pu. theguardian.com/world/2022/dec…
“Lai was the number one personality in Hong Kong’s civil society … the authorities want to ensure he is completely ruined,” he says.
@denniswhkwok says the disproportionate sentencing for the land lease case, the denial of the right to choose an overseas counsel and the lengthy adjournment of the trial “was not only a travesty of justice but also a breach of his human rights”.
More on @Twitter's bizarre decision-making: "Twitter suspended the accounts of roughly half a dozen prominent journalists on Thursday, the latest change by the social media service under its new owner, Elon Musk." nytimes.com/2022/12/15/tec…
"The accounts suspended included Ryan Mac of The New York Times; Drew Harwell of The Washington Post; Aaron Rupar, an independent journalist; Donie O’Sullivan of CNN; Matt Binder of Mashable;
Tony Webster, an independent journalist; Micah Lee of The Intercept; and the political journalist Keith Olbermann."
"Japan is set Friday to decide to possess the capability of striking enemy bases, as well as double its defense costs, in a drastic shift from its postwar security policy under its war-renouncing Constitution." english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/12/0…
Obtaining the ability to deter attacks from outside forces, called "counterstrike capability," is likely to be stipulated in the government's three key defense documents, ...
... including the National Security Strategy, which is scheduled to be updated by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet later in the day.
US regulators on Thursday said they had been allowed to inspect the work of auditors in #China for the first time, easing the threat that about 200 Chinese companies could be thrown off the US stock market. ft.com/content/2dcc60…
"The announcement represents a significant breakthrough after a more than decade-long stand-off between Beijing and Washington, which has argued shoddy audit work contributed to a series of accounting frauds at US-listed Chinese companies."
"China agreed in August to let the PCAOB examine work papers from Chinese auditors, including the local affiliates of the Big Four global accounting firms, but the agency had signalled that it was sceptical it would receive unfettered access."