• Chinese authorities reportedly sentence Uyghur professor to life in prison
• Asia Olympic council “looking into“ Indian athletes“ China visa issue
• [World] South China Sea: Philippines says Beijing installed floating barrier in contested area
• Biden to host Pacific island leaders in US charm offensive vs China
• Philippines condemns Chinese “floating barrier“ in South China Sea
• China coast guard deploys ‘floating barrier’ to cut off disputed South China Sea shoal
• How China’s ‘broke ghosts’ are keeping up appearances during straitened times
• ‘I am willing to wait for months’: Chinese Tiananmen critic ready for long haul in Taiwan transit lounge

Chinese authorities reportedly sentence Uyghur professor to life in prison

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/24/chinese-authorities-uyghur-professor-rahile-dawut

A leading Uyghur professor who disappeared six years ago is reported to have sentenced to life in prison by Chinese authorities for “endangering state security”.

Rahile Dawut, 57, who specialises in the study of Uyghur folklore and traditions and is considered an expert in her field, lost an appeal over her sentence after being convicted in 2018 on charges of promoting “splittism”, according to the US-based Dui Hua Foundation human rights group.

The group has spent years trying to locate Dawut. In a statement, it said it had received the information from a Chinese official and that it was seeking more information about Dawut from the government, including where she was, the state of her health and her right to have contact with family members.

John Kamm, Dui Hua’s executive director, said: “The sentencing of Professor Rahile Dawut to life in prison is a cruel tragedy, a great loss for the Uyghur people, and for all who treasure academic freedom. I call for her immediate release and safe return to her family.”

Dawut is believed to be among more than 300 Uyghur intellectuals who are known to have been detained, arrested and imprisoned since 2016. An estimated 1.5 million Uyghur people have been detained in “re-education” camps.

At the time of her arrest in December 2017, Dawut was teaching at Xinjiang University College of Humanities, where she also founded the Ethnic Minorities Research Centre in 2007.

In addition to her sentence, Dawut will be deprived of political rights for life, Dui Hua said.

The many academic institutions with which Dawut is associated through her work, including the universities of Harvard, Cornell, British Columbia, Pennsylvania, Washington, Indiana and Cambridge, have joined the appeal urging Chinese authorities to release her.

In a statement through Dui Hua, Dawat’s daughter Akeda Pulati called on the Chinese government to free her mother. “I worry about my mother every single day. The thought of my innocent mother having to spend her life in prison brings unbearable pain. China, show your mercy and release my innocent mother,” she said.

Asia Olympic council “looking into“ Indian athletes“ China visa issue

https://reuters.com/article/games-asia-china-india/asia-olympic-council-looking-into-indian-athletes-china-visa-issue-idUSKBN30U03T

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and Asian Games organisers are examining the issue of three Indian athletes unable to join the games in China due to a visa problem, acting OCA President Raja Randhir Singh said on Sunday.

"OCA is looking into it, definitely," as well as organisers and the government, Singh told a press conference in the eastern Chinese host city, Hangzhou. "Since it's a diplomatic issue, they're looking into it. And hopefully, let's see, (whether) something good comes out of it."

The three wushu fighters from the state of Arunachal Pradesh were issued stapled visas instead of stamped ones, India's foreign ministry said. India does not accept stapled visas as valid.

Wei Jizhong, chairman of the OCA's ethics committee, told reporters last week that China did not refuse entry to the athletes.

The practice of issuing visas on loose sheets of paper has been seen as China's way of questioning India's sovereignty over Arunachal Pradesh, a region near the China-India border that Beijing claims as part of Tibet.

New Delhi vociferously rejects the claim, saying Arunachal Pradesh has always been part of India.

Beijing and New Delhi fought a war over the disputed Himalayan frontier in 1962 and have been uneasy neighbours ever since. Relations nosedived in 2020 over a border clash in which 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed.

At the Asian Games, delayed by a year due to COVID-19, some 12,400 athletes from 45 nations are competing for 481 gold medals across a huge programme of 40 sports.

[World] South China Sea: Philippines says Beijing installed floating barrier in contested area

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66905093?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Biden to host Pacific island leaders in US charm offensive vs China

https://reuters.com/article/usa-pacific-summit/biden-to-host-pacific-island-leaders-in-us-charm-offensive-vs-china-idUSKBN30U045

President Joe Biden will host a second summit with Pacific island leaders this week, part of a U.S. charm offensive to block further Chinese inroads into a strategic region Washington has long considered its own backyard.

During the three-day meeting, the U.S. will announce diplomatic recognition for two Pacific islands, promise new money for infrastructure, including to improve Internet connectivity via undersea cables, and honor regional leaders at an NFL game.

Biden held an inaugural summit with the islanders at the White House a year ago and was due to meet them again in Papua New Guinea in May. That plan was scrapped when a U.S. debt- ceiling crisis forced Biden to cut short an Asia trip.

At last year's summit with 14 Pacific island nations, Biden's administration pledged to help islanders fend off China's "economic coercion" and a joint declaration resolved to strengthen their partnership, saying they shared a vision for a region where "democracy will be able to flourish."

The White House said this year's effort would focus on priorities including climate change, economic growth, sustainable development, public health and countering illegal fishing.

The United States will also officially recognize the Cook Islands and another small nation, Niue, for the first time during the summit.

In Baltimore on Sunday, the leaders will see a Coast Guard cutter in the harbor and be briefed on combating illegal fishing by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, an official said.

The leaders will also attend Sunday's football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts. Dozens of NFL players are of Pacific Islander heritage.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who has deepened his country's ties with China, will skip the summit. A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. was "disappointed" by Sogavare's decision.

Washington appears to have made no progress on offers of substantial infrastructure funding and expanded aid to the Solomons. Sogavare visited China in July, announcing a policing agreement with Beijing that builds on a security pact signed last year.

The White House in 2022 said the U.S. would invest more than $810 million in expanded programs to aid the Pacific islands.

Meg Keen, director of Pacific Island Programs at Australia's Lowy Institute, said that while the U.S. had opened new embassies and USAID offices in the region since last year's summit, Congress had yet to approve the funds.

She added that Pacific island countries "welcome the U.S. re-engagement with the region, but don't want geopolitical tussles to result in an escalation of militarization." Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman will also not attend the summit, his office told Reuters.

Kilman was elected by lawmakers two weeks ago to replace Ishmael Kalsakau, who lost a no-confidence vote for actions including signing a security pact with U.S. ally Australia.

The U.S. is still negotiating to open an embassy in Vanuatu, but has not significantly increased its engagement with the nation, which counts China as its largest external creditor. China last month sent police experts to Vanuatu and signed a policing agreement.

A senior Biden administration official said the U.S. was on track to open the Vanuatu embassy by early next year and that other Vanuatu officials would attend the summit.

Fiji has welcomed the stronger U.S. regional presence as making the Pacific "more secure," but Kiribati, one of the most remote Pacific island states, 2,500 miles (4,000 km) southwest of Hawaii, said this year it plans to upgrade a former World War Two airstrip with Chinese assistance.

Washington renewed agreements this year with Palau and Micronesia that give it exclusive military access to strategic parts of the Pacific, but has yet to do so with the Marshall Islands, which wants more money to deal with the legacy of massive U.S. nuclear testing in the 1940s and 50s.

A Biden administration official said it was confident of concluding a deal with the Marshall Islands.

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Philippines condemns Chinese “floating barrier“ in South China Sea

https://reuters.com/article/southchinasea-philippines/philippines-condemns-chinese-floating-barrier-in-south-china-sea-idUSKBN30U024

The Philippines on Sunday accused China's coast guard of installing a "floating barrier" in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying it prevented Filipinos from entering and fishing in the area.

Manila's coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources "strongly condemn" China's installation of the barrier in part of the Scarborough Shoal, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a coast guard spokesperson, posted on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter.

The barrier blocking fishermen from the shoal was depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities", he said.

"The (Philippine Coast Guard) will continue to work closely with all concerned government agencies to address these challenges, uphold our maritime rights and protect our maritime domains," Tarriela said.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

China claims 90% of the South China Sea, overlapping with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. Beijing seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and forced fishermen from the Philippines to travel further for smaller catches.

Beijing allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the uninhabited shoal when bilateral relations were improving markedly under then-President Rodrigo Duterte. But tension has mounted again since his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, took office last year.

Philippine coast guard and fisheries bureau personnel discovered the floating barrier, estimated at 300 m (1,000 feet) long, on a routine patrol on Friday near the shoal, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, Tarriela said.

Three Chinese coast guard rigid-hull inflatable boats and a Chinese maritime militia service boat installed the barrier when the Philippine vessel arrived, he said.

Filipino fishermen say China typically installs such barriers when they monitor a large number of fishermen in the area, Tarriela said.

The Chinese boats issued 15 radio challenges and accused the Philippine ship and fishermen of violating international and China's laws, before moving away "upon realizing the presence of media personnel onboard the (Filipino) vessel", he said.

Related Galleries:

China coast guard deploys ‘floating barrier’ to cut off disputed South China Sea shoal

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/24/china-coast-guard-deploys-floating-barrier-to-cut-off-disputed-south-china-sea-shoal

The Philippines has accused China’s coast guard of installing a “floating barrier” in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying it prevented Filipinos from entering and fishing in the area.

Manila’s coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources “strongly condemn” China’s installation of the barrier in part of the Scarborough Shoal, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a coast guard spokesperson, posted on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter.

The barrier “prevents Filipino fishing boats from entering the shoal and depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities”, he said.

Philippine coast guard and fisheries bureau personnel discovered the floating barrier, estimated at 300 metres (1,000 feet) long, on a routine patrol on Friday near the shoal, locally known as Bajo de Masinloc, Tarriela said.

PCG and BFAR Condemn CCG’s Installation of Floating Barrier in the Southeast of BDM Shoal

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) strongly condemn the China Coast Guard’s (CCG’s) installation of floating barrier in the Southeast… pic.twitter.com/ed4cFtXcQs

— Jay Tarriela (@jaytaryela) September 24, 2023

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

China claims 90% of the South China Sea, overlapping with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. Beijing seized the Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and forced fishermen from the Philippines to travel further, and for smaller catches.

Beijing allowed Filipino fishermen to return to the uninhabited shoal when bilateral relations were improving markedly under then-president Rodrigo Duterte. But tension has mounted again since his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, took office last year.

Tarriela said three Chinese coast guard rigid-hull inflatable boats and a Chinese maritime militia service boat installed the floating barrier when the Philippine vessel arrived.

Filipino fishermen say China typically installs such barriers when they monitor a large number of fishermen in the area, Tarriela said.

How China’s ‘broke ghosts’ are keeping up appearances during straitened times

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/23/china-youth-economy-broke-ghosts/2023-09-07T23:02:16.237Z

SHANGHAI — The waitress set a pot of boiling broth in the middle of the table and arranged the small dishes of snacks that come free with any meal here at Haidilao, one of China’s best-known hot pot restaurant chains. It was just before midnight.

“I can bring you a blanket and a pillow,” she said, “but you’ll have to be out at 7 a.m.”

This offer — to sleep in a booth and get a night’s rest in central Shanghai for the price of dinner — is one that scores of young people have recently taken her up on, the waitress said.

All manner of partygoers and late-night diners were gathered around plumes of chili-laced steam on a recent night, the restaurant the hottest spot in a shopping mall that was otherwise closed.

Many of them would be catching some shut-eye under the Haidilao’s greasy tables, and freshening up with the free mouthwash and hair spray in its well-stocked bathroom. It’s not an obvious place to refresh for another day in China’s capital of culture and fashion.

But crashing in the restaurant allows people, whether from the suburbs or out of town, to stay in the city for cheap.

Calling themselves “broke ghosts” and “ruthless money-saving fiends,” they’re part of a generation of young people in China who are trying to stretch their dollars — and having a ball while doing so — amid China’s economic slowdown, the first of their lives.

They endured the country’s cutthroat education system with the promise that their future wages would buy them a lifestyle better than their parents and grandparents. They’ve graduated to find that, as China’s economic woes pile up, their futures are much less certain.

While some young people have responded by “lying flat,” similar to “quiet quitting,” others want to hang on to that sense of aspiration that has propelled China’s economic rise. That means photos worthy of Xiaohongshu, China’s answer to Instagram.

Online, the “ghosts” and “fiends” swap tips, perfecting the age-old art of having fun on a budget for the image-conscious social media age: How to throw a party with discount groceries, make art pieces from household objects and find the ingredients for a weekend out in Shanghai — a free cup of coffee, a place to spend the night and of course to charge their phones to document all the fun, while spending as little as possible.

Chinese college grads are ‘zombie-style’ on campus. Here’s why.

China’s economy has struggled to rebound from three years of pandemic lockdowns. A storm of debt threatens to topple the property market, where the middle class has stored its wealth. Consumption is sluggish, and deflation is looming. Unemployment for 16- to 24-year-olds reached such record heights that the government has simply stopped releasing the numbers.

After years in China’s competitive education system, it’s difficult for young people to shake a sense of comparison, which is only amplified on social media, said Madeline, a 30-year-old freelancer from Shanghai who previously worked in higher education and spoke on the condition she be identified only by her English name.

Amid the economic crunch, there’s still pressure to seem to be living the good life, even if an undercurrent of anxiety about the future runs beneath the perfect posts.

“The job market is really challenging right now,” said Madeline. “But still, people are always asking for more.”

Especially in glitzy Shanghai, young people still want to keep up appearances, and they’re getting creative to stretch their money as far as it will go.

China’s new labor challenge: Too many workers, not enough jobs

In the heart of Shanghai, deep underground below People’s Park — famed for its marriage market, where parents try to find a perfect match for their single children — shoppers seek a different kind of happiness: the rush of finding an absolutely rock-bottom discount.

There’s no better place to find one than HotMaxx, a chain of bargain stores offering snacks, drinks and household products at even lower prices than on Pinduoduo, a Chinese e-commerce site renowned for unbelievable deals (and, until recently, its unprofitability). The secret at HotMaxx? The dollar boxes of fig-flavored Oreos and off-brand Spanish wine crowding the shelves are just about to hit their expiration dates.

Nelson, a 19-year-old college student from Inner Mongolia, doesn’t mind. He’s at HotMaxx scoring an ice cream to share with his girlfriend while they’re on a three-week trip to Shanghai with his band. It’s a fraction of the price of the ones sold at the fancy cafes surrounding the park.

A park hangout is one of the best ways to enjoy the sights on the big city on a budget. “The views are free,” adds Nelson.

Restaurants across the city have started targeting budget-conscious diners with another viral internet trend: the blind box, where shoppers sign up to receive a food delivery that’s a mystery to them until it they open it.

China’s solution to record youth unemployment is to stop reporting it

At the Jin Yuan eatery in the corner of a food court under a shopping mall off Shanghai’s famed Nanjing Road, the blind box contains two main dishes, two sides and rice for less than $2.75.

On a recent Friday afternoon, a box included peppery braised pork, stir-fried cabbage and pressed tofu fragrant with fresh cilantro. The restaurant sells a fixed number each day only to people who purchase ahead of time online, which means the boxes are bought almost exclusively by internet-savvy young people, said a cook behind the counter.

Shanghai’s budget-conscious gourmands also stand by a time-honored source of cheap eats: the grocery store at closing time. One 27-year-old blogger who goes by the alias “Vicious, money-saving fiend” said that by buying leftover vegetables, she could spend just $8 a month on food and still be able to entertain friends. Her go-to party snack: the rind of a watermelon, pickled and dried in the sun.

She’s saving the money she makes from online ads on her “frugal inspiration” content for a down payment. If she lives like this for another three years, she told a Chinese media outlet, she could buy herself an apartment in the southern megacity of Shenzhen. The comments on her videos applaud her for being “so ruthless.”

Young Chinese take a stand against pressures of modern life — by lying down

Over at the Pacific Department Store shopping mall, shoppers flooded in on its last day of operation, jostling with salespeople boxing up inventory.

Some had come for the promise of the going-out-of-business sale. Others were there for the nostalgia, reliving the boom years of wandering the halls of what had been one of the area’s most popular shopping malls in the 1990s and 2000s.

The bargains on offer weren’t as good as they expected so they weren’t buying much, multiple shoppers said. Instead, many people were live-blogging and taking photos, documenting the end of an era.

“Everyone wants to save as much money as they can while still having fun,” said Huang, an 18-year-old college student who worked part-time at a women’s shoe store in the mall.

Huang wouldn’t lose her job when the mall closed, but be transferred to another location of the popular footwear brand. Some of the salespeople at the independent stores upstairs won’t be so lucky, she said, speaking on the condition that her full name be withheld to avoid getting in trouble with her bosses.

Down the hall, a clerk at the counter of a luxury Korean skin-care brand said that, like a growing number of Chinese people in their 20s and 30s, she’s looking out for herself when it comes to the future. Jin, who also spoke on the condition her full name be withheld, doesn’t own a house, isn’t married and doesn’t want to have children, despite the government’s push to combat population decline.

For some, being frugal isn’t just a way to save money. Like Jin, it’s a way to opt out of the demands and expectations of China’s competitive work and school culture.

“Some Internet-native young people show off their frugality on social media,” said Wang Ning, a professor of sociology at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. “But what they are showing off is not frugality. Rather, the they’re expressing their dissatisfaction with society,” Wang said in an interview in local magazine Southern Views.

Most of the people who shop at Jin’s skin-care counter these days are older returning customers, she said. Instead of splurging on expensive brands, she sees more young people turning to cheaper products.

“The future is unstable,” said Jin. “We do what we can to prepare for it.”

Vic Chiang in Taipei, Taiwan, and Theodora Yu in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

‘I am willing to wait for months’: Chinese Tiananmen critic ready for long haul in Taiwan transit lounge

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/24/china-dissident-taiwan-chen-siming-willing-to-wait-airport-transit-lounge-tiananmen

A Chinese dissident who has taken refuge in a Taiwan airport during a stopover has said he is prepared to wait months if needed, in order to get safe passage to a third country.

Chen Siming is known for regularly commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989 – an event banned from discussion or acknowledgement inside China – and has been repeatedly detained around the anniversary.

In a video posted to social media shortly after his arrival in Taiwan on Friday, Chen said that recently the authorities’ targeting of him had grown “more and more cruel and crazy”.

He is now asking the government in Taiwan to assist him in resettling in a third country, ideally the US, saying his “situation was dangerous and urgent”.

“I am willing to wait for months, because I feel safe in Taiwan,” Chen told the Guardian. “I want to go to the United States. I think Taiwan is very safe and there are no security problems. Taiwan has democracy and liberty as its shelter, so Taiwan is safe for me personally. But security is not my first option in where I settle, I have a lot of work to do in the US.”

Chen was travelling from Thailand to Guangzhou, China, transiting through Taipei’s Taoyuan international airport on Friday. He did not board the second flight, and has refused requests to return to Thailand, where he has said he fears deportation to China.

A similar case suggests Chen could be waiting some time. In 2018-2019 two Chinese dissidents, Yan Bojun and Liu Xinglian, spent four months in a Taiwan airport transit area after also flying in from Thailand and refusing to reboard a flight to Beijing. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) gave them temporary asylum status, and after a long impasse, the pair flew to Singapore and were then allowed to reenter Taiwan legally on short-term humanitarian visas. They eventually resettled in Canada.

Chen told the Guardian he had fled to Laos from China in July, but was urged by friends to move on after the arrest there of human rights lawyer Lu Siwei later that month. In Bangkok he registered with the UNHCR for a refugee assessment, and said he was quickly granted a one-year asylum ID.

E-Ling Chiu, the national director of Amnesty International Taiwan, called on Taiwan’s government to allow Chen out of the airport into Taiwan and assist his transfer to a third country.

Chiu said Taiwanese authorities had previously deported asylum seekers back to their last point of departure. “If the Taiwanese government take a deportation position, they can send him back to Thailand,” she said. “But if they deport him back to China it will violate the non-refoulement principle. It’s not acceptable.”

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which handles Taiwan-China matters, told the Guardian it was handling the case of the stranded dissident, but would not provide further details.

Taiwan does not have a refugee program that offers a pathway to protection, but it has decriminalised the act of arriving unlawfully to seek political asylum. The prospect of a streamlined refugee process is politically fraught in Taiwan, where political parties and the public cite fears of Chinese infiltration and espionage. Advocates say a proper and transparent process would see background checks carried out on applicants, as other countries do.

“It’s a fear of the threat of China, but [not having a system] is not a rational solution,” Chiu said.

William Nee, a research and advocacy coordinator for the Chinese Human Rights Defenders organisation, said there were “a lot of people desperate to leave China”, pointing to the dangerous journeys taken by Chen and Lu into Beijing-friendly Laos, and the growing number of Chinese people crossing the Darien Gap between South and Central America, into Mexico and then the US.

Taiwan’s government needed to “work constructively” with other countries to find protection for Chen, Nee said.

The UNHCR, which does not have a presence in Taiwan, has been contacted for comment.

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