英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总 2023-11-24
November 25, 2023 35 min 7323 words
我已经总结了这几篇文章的主要内容。这些文章涵盖了广泛的主题,包括中国与其他国家的关系,台湾问题,中国国内政策等。 以下是我对这些文章的简要评论- 1. 这些报道整体来说比较客观,但个别报道中可能有一定的偏见或片面性。比如台湾问题和香港问题的报道中,有些措辞可能带有明显的价值判断。 2. 一些报道可能过于简单化或夸大了某些问题,没有充分反映问题的复杂性。比如“生死问题”这样的表述在台湾问题上的使用可能有失公允。 3. 有几篇报道质疑或批评中国的某些做法,这在一定程度上是可以理解的。但有些评论也可能带有定式思维或双重标准。我们需要在评论他国之前审视自己。 4. 整体而言,这些西方媒体的中国报道还是保持了一定的客观性和中立性。但我们也需要认识到,完全客观中立的报道是不存在的。每家媒体都会有其价值取向。 5. 中国需要更加开放透明,与国际社会充分沟通,减少误解,争取国际舆论的理解和支持。我们也需要学会容忍一定的批评,保持谦虚态度。 以上是我的简要评论。总的来说,这些报道不能说完全公正,但也谈不上严重失实。我们需要在继续提高国际传播能力、增进国际社会理解的同时,也保持开放包容的心态。请让我知道如果你对我的评论有其他看法。
- China says no unusual pathogens found after WHO queries respiratory outbreaks
- Why are Marx and Confucius the stars of a new Chinese series? | Podcasts
- WHO asks China about clusters of respiratory disease among children
- China to rule on appeals in case of detained human rights lawyers
- China’s spike in respiratory illness prompts WHO to ask for details
- Taiwan poll shows dip in US trust amid growing concern over China
- WHO asks China for detail on respiratory illness outbreaks
- WHO asks China for details on outbreaks of respiratory illness
- [World] WHO seeks China data on 'pneumonia clusters' in children
- [World] The Chinese mafia's downfall in a lawless casino town
- Xi critic who fled 300km on jetski to South Korea will die if sent back to China, says father
China says no unusual pathogens found after WHO queries respiratory outbreaks
https://reuters.com/article/health-china-who/china-says-no-unusual-pathogens-found-after-who-queries-respiratory-outbreaks-idUSKBN32I00GChinese health authorities have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens and provided the requested data on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
The WHO had asked China for more information on Wednesday after groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China.
As per the rule, China responded to the WHO within 24 hours. The WHO had sought epidemiologic and clinical information as well as laboratory results through the International Health Regulations mechanism.
The data suggests the increase is linked to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions along with the circulation of known pathogens like mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children and which has circulated since May.
Influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus have been in circulation since October.
The agency does not advise against travel and trade as they have been monitoring the situation with authorities.
No unusual pathogens have been detected in the capital of Beijing and the northeastern province of Liaoning.
Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on Nov. 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory disease.
Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The U.N. health agency had also asked China for further information about trends in the circulation of known pathogens and the burden on healthcare systems. The WHO said it was in contact with clinicians and scientists through its existing technical partnerships and networks in China.
WHO China said it was "routine" to request information on increases in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children from member states, such as China.
The global agency decided to issue a statement on China to share available information, as it received a number of queries about it from media, WHO China said in an emailed statement.
The ProMED alert was based on a report by FTV News in Taiwan that came out on Tuesday.
Undiagnosed pneumonia was not mentioned at last week's press conference, according to a transcript, but one speaker said everyone felt like there had been an increase in respiratory illnesses this year compared with three years ago.
The speaker said that global monitoring for mycoplasma pneumoniae had been at a low over the past three years and outbreaks were cyclical, occurring every three to seven years.
The rise in respiratory illnesses comes as China braces for its first full winter season since it had lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in December. Many other countries saw similar increases in respiratory diseases after easing pandemic measures.
"It is just a relatively large seasonal surge, perhaps partly due to chance and partly because there's a bit of 'immunity debt' from the lesser winter surges in the last three years," said Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University.
China's National Health Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday, it published an interview with the state media agency Xinhua in which it advised parents what to do and mentioned that big hospitals were receiving a large number of patients and waiting times were long. It did not comment on the WHO notice.
Since mid-October, the WHO said northern China had reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared with the same period in the previous three years.
It said China had systems in place to capture information on trends in illness incidence and to report that data to platforms such as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.
In recent days, media in cities such as Xian in the northwest have posted videos of hospitals crowded with parents and children awaiting checks.
Some social media users have posted photos of children doing homework while receiving intravenous drips in hospital.
The WHO said that while it was seeking additional information, it recommended that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness.
Measures included vaccination, keeping distance from sick people, staying at home when ill, getting tested and medical care as needed, wearing masks as appropriate, ensuring good ventilation, and regular hand-washing, it said.
Why are Marx and Confucius the stars of a new Chinese series? | Podcasts
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2023/11/21/why-are-marx-and-confucius-the-stars-of-a-new-chinese-seriesKarl Marx and Confucius may have lived 2,400 years apart, but recently, on Chinese state television, their characters were depicted meeting. The show, “When Marx Met Confucius” is one of the latest attempts to promote Xi Jinping Thought on Culture—the leader’s new doctrine for stronger cultural confidence in China. It, and the series, are part of a larger national rejuvenation plan.
This week, Alice Su, The Economist’s senior China correspondent and David Rennie, our Beijing bureau chief, watch the show and explore its significance. They ask: why is it so useful for these two historical giants to meet in Xi Jinping’s China? Runtime: 34 min.
This is a subscriber-only episode. To listen, sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+
If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Podcast transcripts are available upon request at [email protected]. We are committed to improving accessibility even further and are exploring new ways to expand our podcast-transcript offering.
WHO asks China about clusters of respiratory disease among children
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/11/23/china-respiratory-diseases-children-increase/2023-11-23T12:37:36.238ZThe World Health Organization says it has asked the Chinese authorities to share more information regarding a spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia reported among children in the country.
According to a statement shared late Wednesday, WHO said it made an official request to China for epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results, from the reported clusters. The organization said it also requested details about recent trends showing the circulation of known pathogens including influenza and SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes covid-19.
“Since mid-October, northern China has reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared to the same period in the previous three years,” WHO said in the statement, adding that it had also requested information regarding the current burden on health care systems in China and that it was liaising with experts in the country.
On Nov. 13, Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission said at a news conference that there had been an increase in respiratory diseases in the country, attributing the increase to the lifting of coronavirus restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens, WHO said. Around a week later, media and groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in the north of China, though the WHO noted that it was not immediately clear if these were linked to the overall reported spike in infections reported by Chinese authorities or separate events.
In its statement, WHO also urged people in China to take steps to reduce the risk of infection, recommending vaccinations, handwashing, mask-wearing and keeping distance from those who are sick.
What we know about the origin of covid-19, and what remains a mystery
Before the deadly coronavirus pandemic began sweeping the globe in 2020, a series of mysterious pneumonia cases were reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. By March, the WHO declared a global pandemic.
Late last year, China suddenly reversed its stringent “zero covid” policy after three years of pandemic restrictions. The move sparked chaos, and infections soared. Health experts appeared baffled by the decision, telling The Post at the time that “there was no plan. No steps. No contingency plans."
Commenting on the latest rise in respiratory illnesses, Francois Balloux, a professor at University College London’s division of biosciences, told the Associated Press that since this was the first winter since restrictions were canceled, it was likely children’s immunity to common illnesses had been reduced.
“Unless new evidence emerges, there is no reason to suspect the emergence of a novel pathogen,” Balloux said.
China to rule on appeals in case of detained human rights lawyers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/23/china-to-rule-appeals-ding-jiaxi-xu-zhiyong-detained-human-rights-lawyersA Chinese court is to rule in the appeals of detained human rights lawyers Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, as Ding’s wife called on China’s top judge to “rectify the miscarriage of justice” in their case.
Ding and Xu are leading figures in China’s thwarted New Citizens’ Movement, a loose network of activists and lawyers concerned with human rights and government corruption. In April, the men were sentenced to more than a decade in prison for subversion of state power, in a ruling that was criticised by the UN’s human rights chief. Ding received a 12-year sentence, while Xu’s was 14 years.
Ding and Xu have already been detained for more than three years, after being swept up in a crackdown on activists who had gathered in Xiamen in December 2019.
In February 2020, Xu, a former law professor, had called for Xi Jinping, China’s leader who has overseen a severe crackdown on Chinese civil society, to step down over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
On Friday, Linshu county court in Shandong province will deliver its verdict in Ding and Xu’s appeal. Their appeals are all but certain to fail. China’s criminal courts have a conviction rate of more than 99%.
According to China’s criminal procedure law, the men will not have another chance to appeal against their sentences after Friday’s decision.
In September, Luo Shengchun, Ding’s wife, who is based in the US, published an open letter addressed to Zhang Jun, the chief justice of China’s supreme people’s court.
Luo said she had received no information about her husband’s case since the sentencing in April, and accused the Chinese authorities of “shameless violations of the law”.
Ding and Xu “never agreed that they are guilty. They are innocent and they didn’t do anything against the law,” Luo told the Guardian.
Before turning to activism, Ding had a successful career as a commercial lawyer, specialising in intellectual property. In 2011, he was given an award for being one of the “10 best IP lawyers” in Beijing. But, along with Xu, he later became one of the most prominent pro-democracy activists in China’s civil rights movement.
William Nee, a researcher at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said: “Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were arguably the two most prominent activists who were trying to promote civil activism and bring about gradual changes towards a constitutional democracy.”
Nee added that the sentences were “a signal to everyone that the Chinese Communist party will not allow any space for constructive reformers, and instead political life will be unilaterally dictated by Xi Jinping”.
Elaine Pearson, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Chinese authorities should quash the convictions handed down to two of China’s most prominent human rights defenders Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi. They were sentenced to long prison terms on baseless charges and the closed door trials have had myriad due process concerns including allegations of mistreatment.”
The Chinese justice department has been approached for comment.
China’s spike in respiratory illness prompts WHO to ask for details
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/23/china-respiratory-illness-spike-children-whoThe World Health Organization has asked China for details about a spike in respiratory illnesses that has been reported in northern parts of the country, particularly among children.
Epidemiologists have warned that as China heads into its first winter since the lifting of zero-Covid restrictions, natural levels of immunity to respiratory viruses may be lower than normal, leading to an increase in infections.
Several countries, including the US and the UK, experienced large waves of respiratory viral infections in the first winter after Covid restrictions were lifted as people had lower natural levels of immunity. For young children, lockdowns delayed the age at which they were first exposed to common bugs.
On 13 November, China’s National Health Commission held a press conference about the increase in respiratory disease cases. The health authority said that these cases were linked to pathogens such as influenza and mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children.
On Wednesday, the WHO said that it had asked China for more information about clusters of pneumonia in children northern China, stressing that such requests were “routine”.
Earlier this month, one of China’s leading hospitals reported a surge in mycoplasma pneumonia and other respiratory diseases among children in September and October. Beijing Friendship hospital said that the average number of daily outpatient and emergency visits to the paediatric department had increased to more than 1,600, due to the “rapid spread” of respiratory infections.
But in recent weeks the number of infected children in several provinces appears to have fallen, according to Sixth Tone, a local media outlet.
On Monday, Wang Quanyi, the deputy director of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said that mycoplasma pneumonia was no longer among the top three respiratory infections among children in Beijing.
Wang said: “Due to the co-circulation of multiple pathogens, the overall number of infections will show an upward trend … medical institutions must be prepared to deal with the pressure”.
The three years of zero-Covid restrictions may have lowered people’s normal levels of immunity to influenza-like viruses, Wang said, which could lead to a wave of infections in the winter months.
Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University, told Reuters: “It is just a relatively large seasonal surge, perhaps partly due to chance and partly because there’s a bit of ‘immunity debt’ from the lesser winter surges in the last three years”.
State media has acknowledged the increase in pneumonia infections among children but stressed that most cases are mild and that parents should follow measures to reduce the risk of cases spreading, such as vaccinations if necessary, regular hand-washing, mask-wearing and staying at home when ill.
Additional research by Chi Hui Lin
Taiwan poll shows dip in US trust amid growing concern over China
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/23/taiwan-poll-shows-dip-in-us-trust-amid-growing-concern-over-chinaMore than 80% of Taiwanese people think that the threat from China has worsened in recent years, while trust in the United States has also declined in the past two years, in part because of the war in Ukraine damaging Washington’s credibility.
The results of a survey published this week reveal a portrait of Taiwanese society that is under increasing pressure as the self-governing island heads towards a presidential election in January that could have far reaching ramifications for its relationship with the world’s two biggest superpowers.
The American Portrait survey of 1,211 adults was conducted in September by the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top research institution. The findings were published on 20 November.
It found that only 9.3% of the Taiwanese people think China is a “credible” country and that 82.7% think the threat from China has worsened in recent years.
The survey also revealed low levels of confidence in the US to be a stable partner for Taiwan. Only 34% of people agreed that the US was a trustworthy country, a drop of more than 11 percentage points since 2021.
“We suspect that the drop may come from the occurrence of the Ukraine war and how the United States government responded to the Ukraine war making a reference to Taiwan. People in Taiwan imagine that if a war breaks out in Taiwan, how will the US government respond to it?” said Hsin-Hsin Pan, an associate professor at the Department of Sociology at Soochow University.
The percentage of people who agreed that China is a “credible” country has fallen from 13.5% in 2021 to 9.3% this year, in line with falling support for unification between Taiwan and China.
Regarding identity, 78.4% of respondents said Taiwan and China do not belong to the same country. That finding was reflected across the political spectrum, with agreement from both DPP and KMT supporters. The incumbent DPP is seen as being pro-independence – although it has not formally declared that position – while the KMT supports closer ties with Beijing.
More than 60% of respondents considered themselves Taiwanese, compared with just 2.3% who said they identified as Chinese.
In terms of national defence, 65.9% support US arms sales to Taiwan. And a similar proportion said the public promise of US president, Joe Biden, to defend Taiwan would increase their likelihood that the US would send troops to help Taiwan in the event of an assault from Chinese forces.
WHO asks China for detail on respiratory illness outbreaks
https://reuters.com/article/health-china-who/who-asks-china-for-detail-on-respiratory-illness-outbreaks-idUSKBN32I00GThe World Health Organization (WHO) has asked China for details on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, which its China office on Thursday called a "routine" check.
Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on Nov. 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory disease.
Authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and the virus that causes COVID-19.
Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
On Wednesday, the WHO said groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China. The WHO said it was not clear if these were associated with an overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities or separate events.
The WHO said it had asked for additional epidemiologic and clinical information as well as laboratory results from the reported outbreaks among children, through the International Health Regulations mechanism.
Under the rules, China is supposed to respond to WHO within 24 hours.
The U.N. health agency has also asked China for further information about trends in the circulation of known pathogens and the burden on health-care systems. The WHO said it was in contact with clinicians and scientists through its existing technical partnerships and networks in China.
WHO China said it was "routine" to request information on increases in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children from member states, such as China.
The global agency decided to issue a statement on China to share available information, as it received a number of queries about it from media, WHO China said in an emailed statement.
The ProMED alert was based on a report by FTV News in Taiwan that came out on Tuesday.
Undiagnosed pneumonia was not mentioned at last week's press conference, according to a transcript, but one speaker said everyone felt like there had been an increase in respiratory illnesses this year compared with three years ago.
The speaker said that global monitoring for mycoplasma pneumoniae had been at a low over the past three years and outbreaks were cyclical, occurring every three to seven years.
The rise in respiratory illnesses comes as China braces for its first full winter season since it had lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in December. Many other countries saw similar increases in respiratory diseases after easing pandemic measures.
"It is just a relatively large seasonal surge, perhaps partly due to chance and partly because there's a bit of 'immunity debt' from the lesser winter surges in the last three years," said Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University.
China's National Health Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday, it published an interview with the state media agency Xinhua in which it advised parents what to do and mentioned that big hospitals were receiving a large number of patients and waiting times were long. It did not comment on the WHO notice.
Since mid-October, the WHO said northern China had reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared with the same period in the previous three years.
It said China had systems in place to capture information on trends in illness incidence and to report that data to platforms such as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.
In recent days, media in cities such as Xian in the northwest have posted videos of hospitals crowded with parents and children awaiting checks.
Some social media users have posted photos of children doing homework while receiving intravenous drips in hospital.
The WHO said that while it was seeking additional information, it recommended that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness.
Measures included vaccination, keeping distance from sick people, staying at home when ill, getting tested and medical care as needed, wearing masks as appropriate, ensuring good ventilation, and regular hand-washing, it said.
WHO asks China for details on outbreaks of respiratory illness
https://reuters.com/article/health-china-who/who-asks-china-for-details-on-outbreaks-of-respiratory-illness-idUSKBN32I00GThe World Health Organization (WHO) has asked China for details on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, which its China office on Thursday called a "routine" check.
Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on Nov. 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory disease.
Authorities attributed the increase to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and the circulation of known pathogens such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children, respiratory syncytial virus, and the virus that causes COVID-19.
Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
On Wednesday, the WHO said groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China. The WHO said it was not clear if these were associated with an overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by Chinese authorities or separate events.
The WHO said it had asked for additional epidemiologic and clinical information as well as laboratory results from the reported outbreaks among children, through the International Health Regulations mechanism.
It has also asked China for further information about trends in the circulation of known pathogens and the burden on health-care systems. The WHO said it was in contact with clinicians and scientists through its existing technical partnerships and networks in China.
WHO China said it was "routine" to request information on increases in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children from member states, such as China.
The global agency decided to issue a statement on China to share available information, as it received a number of queries about it from media, WHO China said in an emailed statement.
Undiagnosed pneumonia was not mentioned at last week's press conference, according to a transcript, but one speaker said everyone felt like there had been an increase in respiratory illnesses this year compared with three years ago.
The speaker said that global monitoring for mycoplasma pneumoniae had been at a low over the past three years and outbreaks were cyclical, occurring every three to seven years.
The rise in respiratory illnesses comes as China braces for its first full winter season since it had lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in December. Many other countries saw similar increases in respiratory diseases after easing pandemic measures.
"It is just a relatively large seasonal surge, perhaps partly due to chance and partly because there's a bit of 'immunity debt' from the lesser winter surges in the last three years," said Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University.
China's National Health Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since mid-October, the WHO said northern China had reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared with the same period in the previous three years.
It said China had systems in place to capture information on trends in illness incidence and to report that data to platforms such as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.
In recent days, media in cities such as Xian in the northwest have posted videos of hospitals crowded with parents and children awaiting checks.
Some social media users have posted photos of children doing homework while receiving intravenous drips in hospital.
The WHO said that while it was seeking additional information, it recommended that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness.
Such measures included vaccination, keeping distance from sick people, staying at home when ill, getting tested and medical care as needed, wearing masks as appropriate, ensuring good ventilation, and regular hand-washing, it said.
[World] WHO seeks China data on 'pneumonia clusters' in children
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67505218?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGAThe World Health Organization (WHO) has asked China for more information on "clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia" reportedly spreading amongst children in the north of the country.
Non-state media reports say children's hospitals in parts of the country are overwhelmed with sick children.
Chinese authorities have attributed a spike in flu-like illnesses this winter to the lifting of Covid measures.
The WHO is urging people in China to take measures to reduce transmission.
In a statement the UN health agency says it wants more information on reports in the media and from ProMed - a global outbreak surveillance system - of "clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China".
Since October, northern China has reported an "increase in influenza-like illness" compared to the same period over the past three years, it adds.
Last week, China's National Health Commission said there had been a rise in several respiratory diseases across the country - in particular influenza, Covid, mycoplasma pneumoniae - a common bacterial infection affecting younger children - and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Officials attributed the rise to the lifting of Covid restrictions.
Other countries, including the UK and the US, saw similar surges in flu-like illnesses once pandemic restrictions were lifted.
The WHO says it is unclear if the reported pneumonia outbreak and overall increase in respiratory infections reported by Beijing are linked - and has made an official request for more detailed information.
It has urged people in China to take basic precautions like getting vaccinated, wearing masks and hand-washing.
Related Topics
[World] The Chinese mafia's downfall in a lawless casino town
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-67471138?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGAThe photographs released by Chinese police showed their officers holding a man and a woman in handcuffs in front of a border gate.
They had just been handed over from Myanmar, the latest in scores of arrests of those accused of running scam centres in a town on the north-eastern border with China.
The two were Ming Guoping and Ming Zhenzhen, son and granddaughter of one of the powerful warlords who have run the town of Laukkaing for the past 14 years.
A sudden escalation of the conflict in Myanmar has spelled the end of the Chinese mafia - the Godfather-esque "four families" - in this notoriously lawless border town.
At around the same time as the Chinese police released the photos of the handcuffed pair last Thursday, the official Myanmar military news published a photo of an apparent autopsy being conducted in the back of a van on the body of a 69 year-old man.
It was the warlord himself - Ming Xuechang - who, the military said, had taken his own life after being captured, an explanation greeted with scepticism by many.
It was an ignominious end to an extraordinary story that began in the days of war and revolution, but turned into one of drugs, gambling, greed and Machiavellian rivalry.
The four families
Ming Xuechang was a henchman of Bai Suocheng, who heads one of the families.
Under them the remote, impoverished backwater of Laukkaing was transformed into a rowdy casino hub of gaudy high-rise towers and seedy red-light districts.
Although powerful, the Mings were not a part of this coveted list of four - the other three families were headed by Wei Chaoren, Liu Guoxi and Liu Zhengxiang.
Initially developed to take advantage of Chinese demand for gambling, which is illegal in China and many other neighbouring countries, Laukkaing's casinos evolved into a lucrative front for money laundering, trafficking and in particular for dozens of scam centres.
More than 100,000 foreign nationals, many of them Chinese, were estimated to have been lured to these scam centres, where they were effectively imprisoned and forced to work long hours running sophisticated online fraud operations targeting victims all over the world.
Ming Xuechang ran one of the most notorious of these scam centres, called Crouching Tiger Villa. He also reportedly ran the local police force, which, while it donned the regular uniform of the Myanmar national police, acted as little more than a private militia, one of several which enforced the rule of the four families in Laukkaing.
In September, as China ramped up pressure on all the groups running scam centres to shut them down and hand over those who worked there, the Ming family resisted. By some estimates the casinos of each family were processing several billion dollars every year. It was a huge business to give up.
The families also had close ties to the Myanmar military, and the Mings may have believed they were protected, even from the demands of China, which has long had a powerful influence in this border region.
The Beijing factor
In the early hours of the morning of 20 October, a group of scam workers was being transferred from Crouching Tiger Villa, probably in anticipation of a move against the scam centre by the Chinese police.
A number of workers, reported to be between 50 and 100, tried to escape, and the scam centre guards opened fire, killing several. Some accounts say there were undercover Chinese police officers among the dead.
That prompted a strongly-worded letter from the local government office in the neighbouring Chinese province - and the announcement of arrest warrants by the Chinese police for four of the Ming family.
It was China's visible frustration over the unwillingness or inability of Myanmar's ruling junta to rein in its allies in Laukkaing which encouraged three insurgent armies, calling themselves the Brotherhood Alliance, to launch their attacks against the military in late October.
China has in the past always urged restraint in order to keep the peace on its border, but its need to weed out the well-funded and well-armed families in Laukkaing appears to have changed its priorities.
The insurgents say their goal is to eliminate the scam centres, and to support the wider opposition campaign to overthrow the military regime which seized power in 2021.
But in Laukkaing the conflict is more like payback, in a vendetta which goes back to the days of the Cold War.
The Godfather(s) of Laukkaing
The four families owed their control of Laukkaing to none other than Min Aung Hlaing, the military commander who led the 2021 coup and still heads the junta.
Back in 2009, Min Aung Hlaing led a military operation to oust the then-dominant warlord in Laukkaing, a veteran fighter called Peng Jiasheng.
He wanted to install allies more compliant to the needs of the then-military government, which at the time was putting pressure on all of Myanmar's ethnic insurgent groups to transform themselves into pro-government so-called border guard forces.
Most refused, including Peng, even though the military had promised in return that they would be allowed to continue making money from illegal businesses like narcotics.
Peng was part of a generation of warlords in Shan State who emerged in the chaos of the post-independence years in Myanmar, when the central government's authority did not extend to most border regions.
Desperately poor, remote and infertile, Shan State's only real economy was the cultivation of opium. It became the world's largest producer, and funded the various insurgent groups.
Peng began as a commander in the China-backed Burmese Communist Party, but he mutinied in 1989 as Chinese support stopped, breaking the Burmese Communist Party up into several armed insurgent groups.
This was a time when the Myanmar military government was feeling vulnerable. It had just crushed a popular uprising in 1988 with great brutality - the uprising in which Aung San Suu Kyi first emerged as an opposition leader.
Worried about a possible alliance between the established ethnic insurgent groups and the opposition movement, the generals moved quickly to make peace with the insurgents, giving them a free hand to run their fiefdoms as they pleased.
Peng began developing Laukkaing as a gambling hub after being put under pressure to cut back on the narcotics business that was funding his operation.
But when in 2009 he rejected the military's request to turn his forces into a border guard force, Min Aung Hlaing persuaded Bai Suocheng, Peng's deputy-commander at the time, to rebel against him.
Peng was driven out into China. The casinos were left pockmarked by bullet-holes, although dedicated gamblers kept betting throughout the fighting. Bai and the other three families took over the casino economy.
With their close ties to the military they developed extensive business networks in Myanmar, with stakes in mining, energy, infrastructure and casinos in other countries like Cambodia. They established links with organised crime networks in Macao and south-eastern China.
Laukkaing took on the character of a Wild West boom town, where anything goes and anything can be bought and sold. There were occasional gun battles between rival scam centres, and powerful people kept lions and tigers as pets.
But much of Peng's insurgent army, the MNDAA, remained loyal to him. In 2015 he tried, and failed, to retake Laukkaing from the four families.
The MNDAA then formed an alliance with other Shan armed groups. When Peng died last year at the age of 91, he was given a lavish funeral worthy of a mafia don, attended by most of the insurgent and warlord leaders in the region.
Even Min Aung Hlaing sent a senior military commander to pay his respects to his old adversary. Peng's children took over command of the MNDAA, waiting for the opportunity to oust Bai, in their eyes the usurper.
With MNDAA troops now in control of the main border crossing and all roads to Laukkaing, they are poised to retake the casino capital, the engine-room of the "scamdemic", as it has been dubbed by the UN.
What they do with it is anybody's guess, but having promised China to end the scams, they will need to find another way to fund their insurgency.
Their expressed goal of helping overthrow the military junta has been welcomed by the broader opposition movement.
Over the past month, millions in Myanmar have been enthralled by the triumphant scenes of ethnic insurgents parading captured soldiers and equipment, while the drama of the mafia's end has been playing out in Laukkaing.
After enduring nearly three years of a violent military dictatorship, the junta looks vulnerable and people can dare to dream that it might fall.
But, given the history of serpentine shifts of loyalty in this lawless region, the MNDAA's stated aims must be viewed with caution.
At the time of writing Bai Suocheng's whereabouts are unknown. It's also unclear where two of the other warlords - Wei Chaoren and Liu Zhengxiang - are currently. The fourth, Liu Guoxi, died in 2020.
But many members of their families are now in Chinese custody; some have made remorseful confessions. Thousands of those working in the scam centres have already been handed over to the Chinese police. Governments in the region are trying to get hundreds more, still trapped in Laukkaing, out to safety.
The scamdemic in north-eastern Myanmar may now be over, although perhaps only to relocate to another lawless corner of the globe.
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Xi critic who fled 300km on jetski to South Korea will die if sent back to China, says father
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/22/xi-critic-who-fled-on-jetski-to-south-korea-will-die-if-sent-back-to-china-says-fatherThe father of a Chinese dissident detained in South Korea said his son will die if he is sent back to China, a country he escaped from on a jetski in a life-threatening journey in August.
A court in South Korea will decide on Thursday the fate of Kwon Pyong, who is charged with violating the immigration control act. Kwon, 35, pleaded guilty and appealed for leniency as prosecutors requested a sentence of two and a half years, which experts say is unusually harsh.
In the first public comments by Kwon’s family, his father, Quan He, told the Guardian his son was “a young person and he desires freedom. I really hope that the Korean government can give him a way to live.”
Kwon has been held in Incheon detention centre since he washed up on the Korean coastline on the night of 16 August. As a dissident who had previously been jailed in China for criticising Xi Jinping, China’s leader, his case could strain the already fraught relations between Beijing and Seoul.
Kwon had jetskied for 16 hours across the 186 miles (300km) of treacherous waves between his official home and his ancestral one.
Kwon Pyong was born as Quan Ping to ethnically Korean parents in 1988 in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, in China’s north-east Jilin province. As an adult, he preferred to use the Korean version of his name, Kwon, rather than the Chinese version used by his father, Quan.
Quan described his son as “an honest and sincere” person who had started publicly questioning the one-party rule of the Chinese Communist party after studying in the US.
Kwon studied aerospace engineering at Iowa State University, graduating in 2012. There, as well as learning about flight mechanics and wind propulsion, he marvelled on his personal blog at the democratic election of Barack Obama as president.
Upon his return to China, Kwon “had a lot of complaints about the Chinese system”, his father said. In October 2016, he had his first run-in with the authorities after posting a photograph of himself on X (then Twitter), wearing a T-shirt that said “#Xitler” and other derogatory names for Xi.
Kwon was imprisoned for “inciting subversion”, and after his release in 2018, the police followed him “everywhere”, his father said, making it difficult for him to work or rebuild his life.
He said his son was also placed under an exit ban: “He could not go abroad at all. He’d lived abroad before and wanted to return again to a country where there is more freedom.”
At a preliminary hearing last month, Kwon told the court: “I did not secretly enter Korea to destroy buildings or violate the law. After being sentenced in China, I lived without freedom and was unable to leave the country normally.”
Last year, Kwon managed to obtain a tourist visa for South Korea. As the exit ban meant he could not leave China through any of its airports, he decided to jetski.
The first Kwon’s family heard of his scheme was when a relative received a call from the Incheon coastguard on the evening of 16 August.
“Before [Kwon] started his journey, he did a lot of research on the internet,” said Quan, who has visited his son in prison. “In Europe, people can enter the country legally in this way. But when he tried to search if Korea is the same, he couldn’t find much information. He thought that because it is a democratic country, he would be accepted. He thought that if he was arrested he would just need to say, ‘I am a refugee’.”
South Korea is a party to the UN’s refugee convention but in the past 20 years it has accepted fewer than 4,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Yemen and Syria. Between 2017 and 2021, 5,225 Chinese nationals sought asylum in South Korea with just three accepted. “Korea is very reluctant about Chinese asylum seekers,” said Pillkyu Hwang, the director of the GongGam Human Rights Law Foundation in Seoul.
As well as South Korea’s restrictive refugee policies, there is pressure on the relationship between Seoul and Beijing, with concerns Kwon may be receiving unusually harsh treatment because of his status in China.
The two and a half year sentence was “unusually draconian”, said Christoph Bluth, a professor of international relations at the University of Bradford, an expert on Korean human rights. “Usually illegal immigrants are fined and deported.”
However, Bluth said this case was “politically sensitive … so the government will consider [the] impact on relations with China”.
Daeseon Lee, a South Korean human rights activist and friend of Kwon, said South Korea could face “international condemnation” if it “turns away political refugees from China due to its relationship with the Chinese government”.
The Chinese embassy in Seoul could not be reached for comment. South Korea’s justice department has been approached for comment.
It is not clear if, as well as a prison term in South Korea, Kwon could be sent back to China.
That is his worst nightmare, say his supporters. A relative who visited him daily said Kwon recently dreamed that he was caught by a Chinese boat at sea and arrested.
They said: “He risked his life to come to Korea. If Korea doesn’t want him that’s OK, a third country can take him, as long as he can live there well.”
His father added: “He would die if he went back [to China].”
Additional research by Chi Hui Lin