#China: No Limits to the Perversion’ – Sexual Torture in Chinese Prisons

Falun Dafa practitioner Yin Liping shows a photo of Masanjia Labour Camp to congressional representatives at a hearing on Capitol Hill on April 14, 2016. Yin was a victim of torture and gang rape while incarcerated at Masanjia. (Minghui.org)

According to the NGO International Society for Human Rights, victims are sexually abused either by police or prison guards, or stripped naked and thrown into cells with male inmates. The guards make it clear to the inmates that they can abuse the women without fear of punishment.

“The perversion of some of the members of these Chinese security institutions has no limits, according to torture survivors,” the organization says on its website.

Amnesty International reports that sexual torture has been used against Uighur Muslim political prisoners in the Xinjiang region of northwest China for years.

“Some have been tortured with particularly cruel methods which, to Amnesty International’s knowledge, are not being used elsewhere in China. This includes the insertion of horse hair into the penis, or a special wire with small spikes which fold flat when inserted but extend when it is pulled out.”

Amnesty has also reported that Tibetan women have been sexually tortured, including a group of nuns who were stripped, brutally beaten, and sexually assaulted with electric batons—all while male prisoners looked on.

According to the website Status of Chinese People, at least 100 different torture methods are used on Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience in China. These include rape, molestation, shocking genitals with electric batons, rape with foreign objects (including toilet brushes and batons), shoving hot peppers into the vagina, pinching and pulling nipples of both men and women even to the point of tearing them off, kicking genitals, forcefully administering drugs that cause menstruation to cease, forced abortion, and more.

Chinese Companies Tear Down Zimbabwe’s Environment…

Villagers allege that Odzi River in Zimbabwe has been polluted by Chinese companies. (Andrew Mambondiyani for The Epoch Times)

MUTARE, Zimbabwe—The environmental impacts by some Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe can only be described as catastrophic, according to leading environmentalist and human rights activist Farai Maguwu.

Maguwu told The Epoch Times that some Chinese companies don’t even have proper licenses to operate in Zimbabwe.

And as such, these companies are leaving trails of immense environmental degradation across the country, particularly those in extractive sectors such as gold, diamond, and chrome mining.

Villagers in affected areas have claimed that some Chinese companies discharge toxic waste into their water sources resulting in human diseases, a drop in crop yields, death of livestock, and dwindling numbers of fish in the rivers. Some villagers said tailings from the mines were clogging dams and rivers and affecting the availability of water for irrigation.

Read the full story here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-companies-tear-down-zimbabwes-environment_2854315.html

Chinese companies using GPS tracking device smartwatches to monitor, alert street cleaners

Street cleaners in parts of China are reportedly being forced to wear GPS-tracking smartwatches so employers can monitor how hard they work, sparking public outrage and concern over increasing mass surveillance across the country.

Key points:

An alarm function ordering cleaners to work has reportedly been removed, but the GPS function remains
One company said the devices were introduced to reduce management costs
Analysts said the devices marked the latest Chinese trend threatening personal freedom

According to a recent Xinhua News Agency report, more than 500 street cleaners employed by the Nanjing West Bank Environmental Service are required to wear smartwatches while working.

If the smartwatch detects a worker standing still for over 20 minutes, it sounds an alarm.

“Add oil, add oil [work harder, work harder!],” the wristbands’ alarm says, several cleaners from the eastern city of Nanjing told Jiangsu Television earlier this month.

Full story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-17/chinese-companies-using-smartwatches-to-track-workers:-report/10985890

A Chinese mining giant is being accused of underestimating the impact a proposed open cut mine

A Chinese mining giant is being accused of underestimating the impact a proposed open cut mine will have on groundwater on the New South Wales Liverpool Plains.

Key points:

A study by the UNSW Water Research Laboratory into the environmental impact statement (EIS) issued by Shenhua Watermark Mine has found that modelling used by the mining company was flawed
The study found that the EIS relied upon incorrect data on the storage volume of groundwater aquifers, and that the capacity of these aquifers is a lot smaller
The research was funded by the Caroona Coal Action Group (CCAG), which is opposed to the project, but stakeholders claim it is independent because it was peer-reviewed

The University of New South Wales’ Water Research Laboratory conducted a study into the Shenhua Watermark Mine’s environmental impact statement (EIS), and in particular its findings around the project’s potential effect on water.

The research was commissioned by the Caroona Coal Action Group (CCAG), which is opposed to the project.

The study has found that the modelling used by the mining company was flawed, because it relied upon incorrect data on the storage volume of groundwater aquifers.

“The values used were implausibly high based on our research,” Ian Acworth, UNSW Emeritus Professor, said.

Read full story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-05-01/shenhuas-watermark-coal-proposal-under-fire-for-flawed-eis/11062444

China opens maritime rescue base in South China Sea..

An aerial view of the Fiery Cross Reef surrounded by deep blue water.

Beijing has opened a maritime rescue centre on a reef in the hotly contested South China Sea as it seeks to continue building up its presence in the region.

The centre was opened on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands — which China calls Yongshu reef and the Nansha Islands — according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, which regularly carries official announcements.

It will “better protect navigation and transport safety in the South China Sea”, Xinhua said.

China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea are vast and capture much of the strategically important waters.

Controversy surrounds detained Australian-Chinese writer’s relations with Beijing

A photo of a Chinese-Australian man Yang Hengjun, sitting on an outside table, wearing a navy polo shirt with a red collar.

The detention of Chinese-born Australian writer Yang Hengjun over suspected espionage has sparked division within the overseas Chinese community, with critics questioning his professional history as well as his ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Key points:

Dr Yang was at a Chinese state banquet in 2014 which was also attended by Xi Jinping
He is also a personal shopper selling products including Australian baby formula
The arrest made some Chinese diaspora more cautious about speaking out against Beijing

Dr Yang, whose legal name is Yang Jun, was a former employee at China’s ministries of foreign affairs and state security before migrating to Australia where he reportedly obtained his citizenship in 2002.

The 53-year-old had been living with his family in New York, where he has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University since 2017, before his arrest at Guangzhou airport in southern China earlier this month.

Read Full Story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-01/controversy-surrounds-yang-hengjuns-relations-with-beijing/10761674

China, not the house price downturn, the major risk to Australia’s economy…

An economic forecaster says China, not the local housing market downturn, could be the major swing factor for Australia’s economy in the year ahead.

Key points:

Deloitte Access Economics is forecasting economic growth to be “pegged back” in Australia and across the globe in 2019
Report author Chris Richardson says low unemployment means the housing downturn is less dangerous than it otherwise would be
A seperate report from CommSec ranking the state and territory economies has Victoria and New South Wales sharing the top spot

In its outlook for the year ahead, Deloitte Access Economics forecasts a “still growing, but slowing” scenario for the global and national economies.

The business outlook report flags that global economic growth “may be pegged back to rather more pedestrian rates through the course of 2019 and 2020”, as the impact of tax cuts fades in the US and China’s slowdown accelerates.

Locally, Deloitte sees mounting challenges from a “mini-credit crunch”, drought and falling housing construction activity but describes it as still “a pretty happy set of circumstances” for Australian businesses and households”.

Read Full Story Here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-29/china-not-house-price-downturn-the-major-risk-deloitte/10750342

Chinese Censors Target Short Video Apps

The Chinese regime has launched new censorship rules for short videos, prohibiting a wide range of content from spoofs of communist party leaders to videos promoting “money worship,” in its latest move to clamp down on free speech in the country’s sprawling social media scene.

The China Netcasting Services Association, one of the country’s largest government-backed internet associations, released on Jan. 9 a detailed list of 100 types of content short video platforms must expunge.

Political topics top the list, including supporting Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, or Xinjiang independence, criticizing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders and idols, “reform and opening up” economic policies, or system of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” and parodies of the national anthem.

Read Full Story Here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-censors-target-short-video-apps_2763784.html

Australia a potential target in US-China fight over #Huawei

Beijing’s clear message to US allies such as Australia is that they will pay a steep price for siding with the Americans in the standoff over Huawei, part of a wider struggle between the superpowers for tech dominance.

The United States has escalated its fight with China for tech dominance.

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice unsealed indictments against Chinese tech giant Huawei for theft of trade secrets and violations of US sanctions on Iran.

The allegations by the US government comes at a sensitive time, as negotiations are underway to end the damaging trade war between the two countries.

The allegations

Together, the two indictments paint a company hungry to get ahead at any cost, including by stealing technology and telling lies for profit.

Read Full story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-30/huawei-china-us-fight-technology-dominance-australia/10762746

US Bars Huawei’s Silicon Valley Branch From Exporting Tech and Software to China

Chinese tech company Huawei is facing challenges to renewing a permit for its research branch in California due to national security concerns in Washington. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Huawei, China’s biggest telecommunications conglomerate, is facing challenges in renewing a permit for its research branch in California, called Futurewei, due to national security concerns in Washington over the technology being developed and acquired there.

Founded as Huawei’s U.S. subsidiary in 2001 in Plano, Texas, Futurewei employs more than 1,200 employees in the United States. In 2011, Futurewei opened a research and development (R&D) center in Santa Clara, in California’s Silicon Valley. It employs around 700 people, most of them design engineers and scientists.

Read Full story here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/wall-street-journal-us-bars-huaweis-silicon-valley-branch-from-exporting-tech-and-software-to-china_2764807.html