Politics

Guo Feixiong, a human rights attorney and political commentator in China, was found guilty of "incitement to subvert state power" and given an eight-year jail term. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demands the release of Chinese political commentator Guo Feixiong, who was recently given an eight-year jail term after serving more than twelve years in the past. Yang Maodong, a Chinese political analyst and human rights attorney best known by his pen name Guo Feixiong, was found guilty of "incitement to subvert state power" and sentenced to eight years in jail by a Guangzhou (southern China) court on May 11, 2023. Guo, 56, was covertly detained on 5 December 2021, and two days after his wife passed away from sickness, he was formally brought into jail on 12 January 2022. Guo was found g...

Despite the US ambassador to China's apparent soft rhetoric in which he rejected a cold war between the world's two largest economies and referred to "decoupling" as unhealthy and "not smart," some Chinese observers said on Wednesday that China should not be seduced by those "beautiful words" because the key to reversing the deterioration of US-China relations is whether the US government has the political will to implore Beijing to change its ways. US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said on Tuesday at a virtual event hosted by the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center that the US is prepared to undertake high-level conversations with China and wants to improve lines of communication between the two nations. The US's relationship with China is still "complicated" and competi...

Despite claiming to be open for business after three years of harsh COVID-19 regulations, China is tightening its restrictions on its residents and foreign CEOs leaving the country, sending a contradictory message. Exit prohibitions have significantly increased, according to the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders and a Reuters investigation, and the foreign business groups are alarmed by the development. The Safeguard Defenders research notes that since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, China has broadened the legal framework for departure restrictions and employed them more often, sometimes without legal basis. The campaign director for the organization, Laura Harth, points out that between 2018 and July of this year, at least five new or modified Chinese regulations permit...

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, "China has expanded the legal landscape for exit bans and increasingly used them" against many Chinese and foreigners, according to the rights organization Safeguard Defenders. In spite of the government's declaration that the nation is open for business again after three years of harsh Covid-19 restrictions, China is progressively making it difficult for anyone to leave the country, especially foreign CEOs. According to a recent report by the rights organization Safeguard Defenders, numerous Chinese and foreigners have been caught up in exit bans. A Reuters analysis revealed an apparent increase in court cases involving exit bans in recent years, and foreign business lobbies are raising concerns about the trend. The Safeguard Defenders resear...

After some in the international organization criticized China for lacking transparency in the sharing of information about the origins of COVID-19, China has urged World Health Organization (WHO) officials to return to science and fairness and not to be subject to or willing to descend to become a tool of politicization of certain countries. According to experts, using distorted and deficient bits of information to disparage China over the origins of COVID-19 would only damage the international organization's reputation and impede investigations into the virus. The next step of origins-tracing should focus on species like bats that are more likely to carry coronaviruses, according to an epidemiologist connected to China's COVID-19 origins-tracing task force. Since China has spent years...