China’s deception on #coronavirus – here’s how to hold their leadership accountable

Last December, when it became obvious China faced a deadly disease of historic dimensions, Xi Jinping and his government went into damage control mode.

We are not talking about controlling the terrible damage wrought by COVID-19 among humans, but rather the damage to China’s reputation as an emerging global leader, fearing that a carefully crafted, but bogus image would be damaged as more people around the world succumbed to COVID-19.

That damage control has already cost thousands of lives globally, denying the world the crucial time to get ahead of this outbreak, and continues as China engages in image diplomacy, exchanging medicine for influence in international organizations while threatening to cut off pharmaceuticals to countries, including the United States, that refuse to support its false narratives.

Full Story: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/coronavirus-china-deception-accountable-congress-chris-smith

China makes Italy buy back its protective gear during #coronavirus pandemic

China reportedly forced Italy to buy back its own personal protective equipment after the communist country said it would send medical gear to the Mediterranean nation during the coronavirus pandemic.

Italy donated medical equipment to China at the onset of the coronavirus, but when the virus hit the European nation, China put a price tag on the same PPE and forced Italy to buy it back, according to an unnamed senior Trump official who spoke with the Spectator.

“Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population. China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it … and charged them for it,” the Trump administration official said.

China said in March it would donate medical supplies to Italy, which has faced more than 130,000 cases of the coronavirus and over 16,500 deaths.

The official continued, “It’s so disingenuous for Chinese officials now to say we are the ones who are helping the Italians or we are the ones who are helping the developing world when, in fact, they are the ones who infected all of us. Of course they should be helping. They have a special responsibility to help because they are the ones who began the spread of the coronavirus and did not give the information required to the rest of the world to plan accordingly.”

Full Story: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/china-makes-italy-buy-back-its-personal-protective-gear-during-coronavirus-pandemic-report

Chinese Media Sends Message to ‘Stupid U.S. Politicians’: ‘Just Shut Up’

President Donald Trump, left, listens as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House, Friday, March 20, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

China’s Global Times propaganda newspaper published a piece on Monday by an alleged Chinese “professor” repeatedly referring to critics of the Communist Party as “stupid” for noting that China provided fraudulent Wuhan coronavirus data to the world.

Specifically, Wang Wen of China’s Renmin University repeatedly insulted American politicians and “elites,” naming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in particular, for questioning China’s coronavirus case and death count. The Communist Party claims, at press time, 82,665 cases of Chinese coronavirus nationwide and only 3,335 deaths, more than 3,000 of which were identified in the Hubei province, where the virus originated.

China admitted that for months, it did not count “mild” coronavirus cases in its official tally but did not define what constituted a “mild” case. Subsequent reports tallying the number of sets of remains handed out by Wuhan’s funeral homes last week revealed that the death toll in that city alone may be ten times higher than what China claims to be the national death toll.

Full Story: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/04/06/chinese-media-stupid-u-s-politicians-just-shut-up/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

Taiwan is battling against not only the coronavirus, but #China and the World Health Organization

Taiwan is battling against not only the corona virus, but China and the World Health Organization. After an interview with WHO leader Bruce Aylward on Hong Kong media, the world has become transfixed with how the Chinese Communist Party has gotten the United Nations to ignore Taiwan, even during the midst of the deadly coron avirus pandemic that came from an outbreak in Wuhan, China.

 

China joins U.N. human rights panel, will help pick experts on free speech, health, arbitrary detention

This is not a Joke…. Or is it!

GENEVA, April 2, 2020 — China was appointed on Wednesday to a United Nations Human Rights Council panel where it will play a key role in picking the world body’s human rights investigators — including global monitors on freedom of speech, health, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detention — in a move that has sparked protest by international human rights activists.

“Allowing China’s oppressive and inhumane regime to choose the world investigators on freedom of speech, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights organization based in Geneva that closely monitors the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, and a leader in speaking out at the UN for victims in China.

“It’s absurd and immoral for the UN to allow China’s oppressive government a key role in selecting officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide,” said Neuer.

Full Story Here: https://unwatch.org/china-joins-u-n-human-rights-panel-will-help-pick-experts-on-free-speech-health-arbitrary-detention/

Hong Kong bookseller who sold books critical of Chinese political leaders jailed for 10 years

Gui Minhai, who had been missing since October.

A Hong Kong bookseller who sold texts critical of Chinese political leaders, and who has previously been abducted in a Thai beach resort before resurfacing in detention in mainland China, is jailed for 10 years.

A Chinese court has sentenced Chinese-born Swedish citizen Gui Minhai to 10 years in jail for illegally providing intelligence overseas, prompting a protest from Stockholm.

Key points:

  • Gui Minhai is one of five booksellers linked to a Hong Kong bookshop who disappeared in late 2015
  • He was awarded a free speech award by Sweden in 2019, which Chinese officials objected to
  • Sweden is demanding consular access to Gui, but Chinese officials say visits have been put on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak

Gui, a bookseller previously based in Hong Kong who sold books critical of China’s political leadership, was detained by mainland police in 2018.

He was seized while with Swedish diplomats on a Beijing-bound train.

Relations between Sweden and China soured in the months leading up to the sentencing, with Chinese officials warning Swedish counterparts against meddling in China’s internal affairs.

Sweden summoned the Chinese ambassador to Stockholm to protest against the sentence and demand Gui’s release.

“We have summoned China’s ambassador to our cabinet secretary and again demanded the release of, and consular access to, our citizen,” a foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said Gui should be released, a position Sweden has held throughout.

“We also require access to our citizen to provide the consular support he is entitled to,” Ms Linde said.

“We have not had access to or knowledge of any trial. Thus, we have not been able to review the indictment nor been able to offer access to legal counsel,” she said.

Full Story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-26/hong-kong-bookseller-gui-minhai-jailed-for-10-years/12001008

CHINA – Leaked documents showy Uyghurs detained for simple acts of faith…

A photo showing the leaked documents that detail information of those detained.

 

Full Story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-18/uyghurs

For decades, Uyghur imam Memtimin Emer was a bedrock of his farming community in China’s far west. On Fridays, he preached Islam as a religion of peace. On Sundays, he treated the sick with free herbal medicine. In the winter, he bought coal for the poor.

Key points:

  • The leaked database has information on 311 individuals and more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbours and friends
  • It shows the Chinese Government detained them for religious activities such as praying, attending a mosque, and growing a beard
  • Information leaked last year showed the “training” camps were centres for forced ideological and behavioural re-education

But as a Chinese Government mass detention campaign engulfed his native Xinjiang region three years ago, the elderly imam was swept up and locked away, along with all three of his sons living in China.

Now, a newly revealed database has exposed in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Mr Emer, his three sons, and hundreds of others in Karakax County: their religion and their family ties.

The leaked database contains details of 311 individuals and lists information on more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbours and friends.

It shows the Chinese Government focuses on religion as a reason for detention — not just political extremism, as authorities say, but ordinary activities such as praying, attending a mosque, or even growing a long beard.

Each entry includes a detainee’s name, address, national identity number, detention date and location, along with a detailed dossier on their family, religious and neighbourhood background, the reason for their detention, and a decision on whether or not to release them.

Issued within the past year, the documents do not indicate which government department compiled them or for whom.

 

China wants to administer an area deep inside Australia’s Antarctic claim…

A Chinese flag flying over Antarctica

Australia’s Government has deflated China’s ambition to manage the summit of the Antarctic ice sheet, an area within Australia’s Antarctic claim.

Key points:

  • China wants to administer an area deep inside Australia’s Antarctic claim
  • Beijing’s proposal for a code of conduct at “Dome A”, a high point on the continent, was discussed this month in Prague
  • Australia’s Government has declared China’s draft code has “no formal standing” within the Antarctic Treaty System

Countries involved in Antarctic affairs met in the Czech Republic this month for their annual diplomatic get-together, and China’s proposal was the subject of discussions.

The bid from China to implement a code of conduct at “Dome A” — some 4,000 metres above sea level — was not supported by Australia.

Dome A has been recognized as perhaps the best location for space observation on Earth due to its high elevation and outstanding visibility.

China’s draft code tabled at the meeting “has no formal standing in the Antarctic Treaty System”, according to a statement by a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson provided to the ABC.

In Antarctica multiple nations sometimes access the same areas for science. One nation or a group of nations take on responsibility for how this occurs.

China’s proposed code is the latest attempt by Beijing to manage activity in this remote location. China is the only nation with a base in the area.

It originally proposed a “specially managed area” five years ago to protect the local environment and coordinate activities in this region.

Full Story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-30/antarctica-china-code-of-conduct-dome-a/11318646

Uyghurs were enslaved and forced to convert to Islam, Chinese Government claims

A masked Uighur boy takes part in a protest against China, at Fatih Mosque in Turkey

Uyghurs in Xinjiang were forced to become Muslim and have been an integral part of China for thousands of years, Beijing said in a new report, in an attempt to justify its controversial crackdown against the ethnic minority in the far-western region.

Key points:

  • China has sought to justify treatment of Uyghurs that Western countries have condemned as “cultural genocide”
  • Beijing’s report hits back at “double standards” of critics and defends “anti-terrorism” efforts
  • Experts say the white paper is a classic case of China’s ongoing information warfare

A white paper released on Sunday by China’s State Council Information Office — the Government’s propaganda arm — presents the ruling Communist Party’s interpretation of history, claiming “Islam is neither an indigenous nor the sole belief system of the Uyghur people”.

The report also said that Islam spread into Xinjiang by “the Arab Empire” and that the Turkic Uyghur people “endured slavery” at the hands of “the Turks”.

“Conversion to Islam was not a voluntary choice made by the common people, but a result of religious wars and imposition by the ruling class,” it said, declaring that the Government nevertheless respects “the Muslims’ right to their beliefs”.

Full Story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-22/china-report-says-xinjiangs-uyghurs-forced-to-convert-to-islam/11330490