US-China trade blame, US-Taiwan sign deal, and Xi calls for greater state control of AI

+ China sends first civilian into orbit and extreme weather patterns dominate headlines

Welcome to another edition of What’s Happening in China, a weekly newsletter that curates the latest and most important news and developments from the country.

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Candlelight vigil in Hong Kong, in 2014, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown

Xinjiang exit bans keep Uyghur ‘agitators’ in place, divide families – The China Project

Well before 2020, when Beijing ordered all Chinese to stay put to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a series of laws barred mostly Muslim Uyghurs from leaving their homeland in Xinjiang.

A May 2023 report by the Madrid-based human rights advocacy group Safeguard Defenders, Trapped: China’s Expanding Use of Exit Bans, details Beijing’s restrictions on travel outside China by P.R.C. citizens, particularly Uyghurs, through the use of what, effectively, are exit bans controlling the movements of so-called “troublemake…