South China Sea disputes, Biden-Xi phone call, and Janet Yellen in China
South China Sea disputes, Biden-Xi phone call, and Janet Yellen in China
+ Netflix’s 3 Body Problem
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THROUGH THE LENS
XINJIANG
With feasts and patrols, China tries to keep Uyghurs from fasting
RFA
During Ramadan, Chinese authorities have been using a mix of festivals and surveillance to keep the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang from fasting, praying and observing the Muslim holy month that ends Monday.
In the city of Atush, officials told Radio Free Asia that they organized arts events and outdoor feasts and distributed free food during the month. They also held communal meetings in the early evenings to coincide with sundown, when Muslim families typically gather to eat after the daylong fast in a practice called iftar.
Police in the northwestern city of Ghulja conducted street patrols and home inspections to see if residents were fasting. They also banned residents from gathering on the streets to prevent them from meeting for dinner together.
“It is prohibited to do iftar together and prayer together,” a police officer in Ghulja told RFA. “We tell them fasting is not allowed, We also pay attention [to see] if they are visiting their relatives during iftar.”
Arab politicians praise China’s policies in Xinjiang
RFA
A delegation of Palestinian and other Arab politicians praised China’s policies in Xinjiang during a visit to the northwestern region, sparking criticism from experts and Uyghur rights advocates for not highlighting the plight of fellow Muslims living in the region.
The delegation was led by Bassam Zakarneh, a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council of Palestine and made up of politicians from Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan and Tunisia, according to a report by the Global Times.
On March 27, Xinjiang’s Communist Party chief Ma Xingrui welcomed them to Urumqi, the regional capital.
The goal of the visit, according to a Xinjiang Daily report, was to present a comprehensive understanding of the situation in Xinjiang and convey a narrative of a peaceful and vibrant region to the international community.
That’s in sharp contrast with the United States and some Western parliaments, which have accused China of carrying out a genocide against the 11-million-strong Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang – a region taken over by Chinese Communists in 1949 – by imprisoning, torturing and sterilizing those who do not fall into line.
POLITICS & SOCIETY
China's Emerging Welfare Crisis
Think Global Health
Over the past two decades, China has made great strides in expanding its version of a welfare state, which involves moving away from an out-of-pocket model to improve health insurance coverage and reduce out-of-pocket expenses. Since 2019, however, signs have emerged of an impending crisis in the medical insurance system.
The number of residents subscribed to the Urban and Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URRBMI) has consistently dropped. In 2022 alone, the insurance schemes lost 25 million subscribers. The continuous rise in premiums is believed to be a factor in subscriber withdrawal from URRBMI. From 2003 to 2023, individual out-of-pocket insurance premiums increased by 38 times, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 20%.
Provincial Officials Moved to Key Leadership Jobs in Beijing
Caixin
China is undertaking a reshuffle of senior personnel across the central government, major state-owned enterprises, higher education institutions, and the upper echelons of the Communist Party.
Several of the officials taking up new positions in Beijing have extensive working experience in the eastern Chinese regions of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Caixin’s analysis showed.
Chinese military’s security chief Wang Renhua elevated to top rank of general
SCMP
President Xi Jinping has promoted the PLA’s security chief to the rank of general, a departure from recent practice that comes amid a purge of military leaders.
Wang Renhua, head of the Central Military Commission’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, was elevated to the highest rank for officers in active service on Thursday.
Wang, 62, is the third security chief of the People’s Liberation Army since a major overhaul of the military in 2015. He took up the job in late 2019 and was promoted to lieutenant general.
He becomes the first general to serve in this position since the overhaul – his predecessor Song Dan was a lieutenant general when he was security chief, as was Li Xiaofeng before him.
It comes as the ruling Communist Party is ramping up a campaign targeting corruption in the military. In December, nine PLA generals – including a number of senior members of the PLA Rocket Force responsible for China’s nuclear arsenal – were dismissed from the top legislature.
China’s Former Justice Minister Under Graft Probe Into His Ties with Evergrande
Caixin
China’s former Justice Minister Tang Yijun is under investigation for corruption. Although the top anti-graft agency didn’t disclose the reason for the probe in a one-sentence statement Tuesday, Tang’s controversial involvement with fallen real estate giant China Evergrande Group while he was the governor of Liaoning province raised attention.
Before being made Justice Minister in 2020, Tang worked in the eastern province of Zhejiang for nearly four decades, with 12 years spent in the coastal city of Ningbo, followed by a nearly three-year stint in Northeast China’s Liaoning province as deputy provincial party chief and governor. The investigation may be related to his time in Ningbo and Liaoning, Caixin learned from multiple sources.
Media feel pressure to tell ‘positive’ China story as party tightens grip
Al Jazeera
Former and current employees at Sixth Tone have recently given accounts of how articles have been removed and phrases censored on a massive scale across the outlet’s archives. Editors have also been required to check in with censors every few hours and certain terminology has been changed to align with the preferred narrative of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) including referring to Tibet as “Xizang”.
Al Jazeera reached out to Sixth Tone for comment but did not receive a reply.
Ong is not surprised that the grip appears to be tightening around Sixth Tone.
“As Sixth Tone has grown, it has attracted a bigger audience making the government want to increase its control over the content this audience is getting,” she said.
“At the same time, there is a lot of pressure on Chinese media today to portray China in a solely positive manner.”
Chinese authorities still persecute dissidents’ families years after their release
VOA
Some human rights advocates say the Chinese government has increased the level of persecution against Chinese dissidents and their families in recent years. Yu Zhenyang, the son of detained human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan, was briefly detained and has tried to commit suicide twice since last November.
“Under Xi Jinping’s rule, persecutions against the children of Chinese dissidents have increased and it’s now a new normal,” said Zhou Fengsuo, a former Tiananmen student leader and executive director of New York-based organization Human Rights in China. He spoke to VOA by phone.
During a Universal Periodic Review, held by the U.N. Human Rights Council in January, China’s top diplomat in Geneva said Beijing is dedicated to “safeguarding the rights of specific groups” and “implementing four consecutive cycles of outlines for children's development.”
China Welcomes More Foreign Travelers as Visa Waiver Expands
Caixin
China is experiencing an uptick in inbound travelers as the country intensifies its efforts to attract foreign visitors through eased visa requirements and enhanced convenience.
During the first three months, overseas booking of trips to China on the country’s largest online travel agency Trip.com surged 188% from the same period a year ago. During the Easter weekend, the number of bookings climbed 146% year-on-year, data from the company showed.
Data from rival Tongcheng Travel also shows that since the beginning of 2024, its hotel service unit has seen a 136% increase in foreign guests compared to a year ago.
Zhou Xiaoguang, the general manager of Guilin Tang Dynasty Tours Co. Ltd., told Caixin that his company has welcomed five to six times more foreign guests than a year ago, although the number is still about half of what it was before the pandemic in 2019.
China has been encouraging more foreigners to enter the country since reopening after the pandemic, including waiving visa requirements for citizens from over 20 countries and making local digital payment services more international-user friendly.
“The significant relaxation of visa policies recently has played a huge role in boosting market demand. The proportion of guests from the European market has notably increased recently,” said Zhou.
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