Wang Yi in Munich, EU-China relations, and third plenum buzz
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THROUGH THE LENS
XINJIANG
Uyghur forced labor policies seen continuing through 2025: report
RFA
China has expanded its forced labor transfer program in far-western Xinjiang – moving Uyghurs from rural areas to work in factories – and plans to continue doing so through 2025, a new report says, warning that it will have far-reaching consequences for the 12-million strong ethnic minority.
Under a program that Beijing says is aimed at poverty alleviation, high-level Chinese policy and state planning documents call for intensified employment requirements targeting Uyghurs, according to research conducted by German scholar Adrian Zenz published in a report by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.
But activists and experts say the program is thinly-disguised forced labor: Uprooting Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities from their homes and forcing them to work in factories producing everything from textiles and chemicals to car parts.
Volkswagen slammed by investors group over forced Uyghur labor
Nikkei Asia
An ethical investment association in Germany is calling on sustainable investment funds to sell out of Volkswagen Group positions over allegations that forced Uyghur labor was used in the company's Xinjiang operations.
The world's second-largest automaker has been plagued in recent years by accusations of using forced Uyghur labor in its 50-50 joint venture with China's state-owned SAIC Motor, and has already suffered a key investor sell-down as a result.
POLITICS & SOCIETY
China’s Spy Agency Sees Threats Everywhere in Data Security Push
Bloomberg
Plane tracking. Weather monitoring. Marking locations in mapping apps.
China’s spy agency is now warning that these everyday acts are increasingly being exploited by foreign actors to harm the country’s national security. It’s the latest sign of increasing scrutiny of data flows, one that is likely to heighten risks for businesses operating in the world’s second-largest economy.
Major companies in China are setting up their own volunteer armies
CNN Business
“The return of corporate militias reflects Xi’s rising focus on the need to better integrate economic development with national security as the country faces a more difficult future of slower growth and rising geopolitical competition,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow for Chinese politics at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.
“Corporate militias under military leadership could help the Communist Party more effectively quell incidents of social unrest such as consumer protests and employee strikes,” he said.
Xi Jinping’s Succession Dilemma
Asia Society
What is the likely impact if Xi effectively rules for life? Politics would become progressively less stable, as other leaders maneuver against each other in case of a sudden succession crisis. Decision-making could become increasingly personalistic and volatile. Policy would probably continue to emphasize national security, adopt state-heavy solutions to economic problems, and play into strategic competition with the United States and its allies and partners.
Taiwan's Democratic Election and China's Democratic Hopes
My point isn’t that China is politically a century behind Taiwan. It’s that this tendency to point to the success of democracy in Taiwan to demonstrate the People’s Republic of China’s moral failure for not implementing electoral democracy is simplistic and misleading. It too readily dismisses an argument about necessary conditions for successful democracy that has by no means been settled. The maximalist position — the claim that China’s political culture is intrinsically and immutably hostile soil in which democracy will never grow — is not the argument being made by any serious people.
China’s Biggest Spring Festival in Years, by the Numbers
Sixth Tone
The films, trends, and destinations that defined this year’s Lunar New Year holiday.
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