Since 2020, the five richest men in the world have doubled their fortunes while almost five billion people have become poorer. A growing sense of economic injustice and insecurity is contributing to the rise of authoritarian movements around the world. Meanwhile, the world is set to blast past global heating targets. But this is not inevitable. What if, instead, economic decisions were made with people and the planet at the center?

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 paved the way for the democratisation of many eastern European countries and triumphantly ushered in the era of global liberal democracy that some scholars celebrated as “the end of history”. The idea was that human political history followed a steady path and that western liberal democracy was the end point of the evolution of human government. Unfortunately, events unfolded a little differently.

The last 20 years did not follow a linear arc of progress, let alone marked the end of history. The growing electoral success of extreme rightwing parties in many western countries, from France to Finland and from the Netherlands to Germany, has turned the end of history into the possible end of democracy.

[...]

The public is unlikely to perceive a risk to democracy when a political leader breaks with a convention. But when repeated breaches of democratic norms by political elites are tolerated, when rhetorical transgressions escalate, and when a deluge of lies and manipulative claims becomes “normal”, then the public’s failure to punish the early signs of such behaviour at the ballot box may have drastic consequences.

In the same way that a nuclear power plant may appear to be operating safely until the last safety valve is broken, democracies can appear stable right up until they flip into autocracy.

[...]

One way to counter these problems may be to simulate experience of the risks, even if only through proxies. For instance, disaster training centres in Japan simulate the experience of the visceral dimensions of an earthquake and its swift temporal dynamic in a way that even the most graphic warnings cannot.

We argue that we can, equally, simulate how life feels in an authoritarian regime. Europe is home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have lived in autocracies and who can be invited to classrooms to share their personal experiences.

Vicarious detailed experiences can be highly persuasive. Similarly, people can gain insight into what it meant to be a political prisoner by visiting places like the former Stasi prison Hohenschönhausen in Berlin, especially when the guide is a former inmate. There are numerous other ways to emulate the experience of oppression and authoritarianism, thereby informing those who have been fortunate enough never to endure it.

The seemingly persistent non-occurrences of risky events can be seductive and misleading. But we are not enslaved by what we haven’t yet experienced. We can also use the positive power of experience to protect and appreciate our democratic systems.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31732325

Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group focused on China, has reviewed data related to arrests, prosecutions, trials, and sentencing, comparing them with previous reports since Xi Jinping came to power.

[...]

The only significant ongoing trend is the reduction in information provided in the reports, contributing to the PRC’s attempts to render China an informational black hole for outside observers, the group says.

[...]

• Transparency in China's criminal justice system continues to decline as SPP and SPC reports remove key data (see below under each section) from their submissions to Congress.

• To make matters worse, the China Judgments Online/Wenshu database—significantly flawed at its best—has effectively been discontinued as of 2024. Prior to this, an analysis covering 2013 to 2020 showed that 35-45% of verdicts announced by the SPC were missing from the database annually. Earlier analyses provide further details and context.

• Since Xi came to power, China has seen approximately 18.5 million prosecutions, with its courts issuing 17 million verdicts (at the first instance) and with approximately 10.5 million arrests (not detentions).

• No data of any kind exists on the number of people detained within the regular criminal justice system, only on those that police later seeks to have arrested.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31700111

Archived

[...]

The Australian sinologist Geremie Barme observes that there are “haunting parallels” between the values shared by [U.S. President] Donald Trump and [China's] Xi Jinping. They both possess autocratic personalities. Their signature chants echo each other: Trump’s “Fight, Fight, Fight” and Xi’s “Struggle, Struggle, Struggle”, and they share values.

[...]

How to measure such a convergence? Helpfully, the Chinese Communist Party compiled a checklist for us. Document No. 9 was published in 2013, during Xi’s first months as president.

The document lists the regime’s “seven taboos” [...]

[...]

The first taboo is “Western constitutional democracy”. Essential to this is the separation of powers. [...] A practical example is that, in a liberal democracy, a citizen can challenge a government decision in court.

But China’s dictators reject this in favour of “the monolithic leadership of the Party”. And Trump’s America, too, [...] The administration chose to ignore the ruling [of a judge to not deport Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador]. White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Stephen Miller, said: “It is without doubt the most unlawful order a judge has issued in our lifetimes.”

[...]

Second, the concept of “universal values” is forbidden. Xi regards human rights as a challenge to the rule of the party. And Trump? “The concept that everyone is equal is undermined by the administration’s attack on DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] policies,” says Barme, who has been writing on the growing convergence of US and Chinese values since 2017 on China Heritage [...] Trump is basically pursuing a massive re-segregation by race, class, wealth and values.”

[...]

Xi’s third taboo is “civil society”, which Document No. 9 describes as a “serious form of political opposition”. The party bans or strictly regulates any effort at citizens’ organising for a shared purpose, whether it’s a charity, trade union or environmental NGO [...]

Trump seeks to delegitimise and halt civil society movements with which he disagrees. Trump’s defence secretary in 2020, Mark Esper, has written that Trump asked him to order troops to fire into crowds of Black Lives Matter protesters: “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”

Trump pardoned more than 1000 people convicted of invading and vandalising the Capitol on January 6, but says people vandalising Tesla cars will be branded “domestic terrorists” by his administration, opening the prospect of severe punishments. “That’s incredibly familiar territory,” says Barme, citing China’s use of the term “subverting state power” to crush protest movements.

[...]

China’s fourth “unmentionable” is neoliberalism – because it’s an idea that undermines state control of the economy [...] Similarly, Trump is leading a retreat from US neoliberalism by applying new tariffs. He is a mercantilist who believes that government should engineer positive trade balances through market intervention.

[...]

The fifth is independent journalism. China’s censorship and propaganda machinery is notorious for quashing independent reporting and debate. Xi has said that all media outlets in China share the same family name – “the Party”.

In the US, Trump recently [...] said that CNN and MSNBC were “illegal, what they do is illegal” and “has to stop”. Their crime? They “literally write 97.6 per cent bad about me”. Separately, Trump sues media outlets whose coverage he dislikes [and] has threatened to revoke broadcast licences and jail journalists

[...]

China’s sixth taboo is what Xi calls “historical nihilism”. This is aimed at curbing honest accounting for the Party’s previous mistakes such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Criticism of the Party’s past could undermine opinion of the Party’s present, he fears.

Barme says that a showcase of the Trumpian equivalent is his opposition to The New York Times′ 1619 Project, which reframed US history around the experience of slaves. Trump set up a committee in rebuttal, the 1776 Committee. He favours revisionist histories of the Confederacy, slavery and the Civil War.

[...]

The final taboo is against any effort to challenge “reform and opening” as defined by Xi. Barme finds its analogue in Trump’s intolerance for criticism of his executive orders.

The US, of course, remains vastly freer and more contested a society than the People’s Republic. But after a mere two months into Trump’s current term, the trends are all China’s way, seven for seven.

It’s growing harder by the day for Australia and other US allies to claim “shared values” with America under Trump.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31373798

Archived

Beneath the glossy façade of China’s economic rise lies a grim reality—one the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would rather the world ignore. Xinjiang, home to the Uyghur people, has become a sprawling open-air prison, where mass detentions, coercive assimilation, and relentless state surveillance have transformed an entire ethnic group into a community of silent sufferers.

Beijing’s official narrative presents its policies in Xinjiang as counter-terrorism measures, but the evidence tells a different story—one of cultural erasure, forced labour, and crimes against humanity. A Bloody History of Betrayal

China’s repression of the Uyghurs is neither new nor accidental. For centuries, the Uyghur homeland—historically known as East Turkestan—has been caught in the crosshairs of competing dynasties. The Qing Dynasty saw periods of both empowerment and oppression for the Uyghurs, but with the rise of Communist China in 1949, the noose tightened. Led by the ruthless Wang Zhen, the Chinese military crushed Uyghur resistance, dismantling local autonomy and imposing brutal land reforms that dispossessed Uyghur farmers. Residents watch a convoy of security personnel armed with batons and shields patrol through central Kashgar in western China's Xinjiang region, 2017. | AP

The CCP’s justification? National security. The reality? A calculated effort to bring Xinjiang under Beijing’s iron grip.

[...]

China’s crackdown intensified under Xi Jinping, who declared a “People’s War on Terror” in Xinjiang. The result was the creation of sprawling concentration camps—euphemistically branded vocational training centres—where over a million Uyghurs were detained without trial. Survivors’ testimonies paint a horrifying picture: brainwashing sessions, forced renunciations of Islam, physical abuse, and sexual violence.

Children were forcibly separated from their parents and placed in state-run orphanages to be indoctrinated with Communist Party ideology. The goal was clear—break the Uyghur spirit and erase their cultural identity, one generation at a time.

[...]

China’s assault on Uyghur culture extends far beyond mass incarceration. In an effort to Sinicize Xinjiang, the government has outlawed Islamic practices, demolished mosques, and criminalized fasting during Ramadan. Uyghur-language schools have been shut down, and replaced with Mandarin-only education designed to erase native identity.

[...]

China’s treatment of the Uyghurs also serves a strategic purpose. Xinjiang is a key node in Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, and the CCP views the Uyghur population as an inconvenient obstacle. By forcibly relocating Uyghurs and resettling Han Chinese in their place, Beijing aims to neutralize resistance while cementing its economic dominance in the region.

[...]

The forced labour industry in Xinjiang is another grotesque element of this oppression. Uyghur detainees are exploited in textile and agricultural sectors, supplying global brands with products tainted by modern-day slavery. Companies worldwide have been complicit, either through direct sourcing or willful ignorance.

[...]

Why do people living in democratic countries vote for political candidates who openly violate democratic standards? A new study by a University of Notre Dame [in France] found that diverse understandings of democracy among voters can lead to votes for authoritarian-leaning political leaders.

“A considerable variety in democratic views leads part of the electorate to overlook violations of democratic norms such as minority rights protection or restraints on executive power,” said Marc Jacob, assistant professor of democracy and global affairs at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. “These varied attitudes represent an important vulnerability for the democratic system as they can enable authoritarian political candidates to access and retain power.”

The study, [...] found that voters' differing conceptions of democracy shape their ability to recognize democratic violations and, in turn, affect their voting choices.

Jacob and co-authors Natasha Wunsch of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Laurenz Derksen of ETH Zurich conducted a candidate choice experiment in Poland, a democracy where elections remain competitive despite some democratic backsliding over the past several years. (Democratic backsliding occurs when existing democracies slip backward toward autocracy and is currently taking place in every region of the world.)

The researchers found that respondents who supported democracy in principle but adhered less strongly to liberal democratic norms, such as minority rights protection and constraints on executive power, tolerated democratic violations more readily.

[...]

“Democracy education often features big, abstract ideas, but it’s just as important to show people how civil liberties, power-sharing, and the rule of law directly benefit them—and to remind them that their votes play a crucial role in keeping those values alive.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31295995

• Beijing’s diplomatic rhetoric advocates upholding international rules and norms, but this diverges sharply from both its words to party officials at home and its actions abroad that undermine and violate international laws and institutions.
• Beijing benefits from an international order in which other powers are restrained by rules that it claims are biased and so chooses not to follow. This explains how Foreign Minister Wang Yi can both promise to “safeguard … the international system with the United Nations at its core” and reject inconvenient international rulings as “a political circus dressed up as a legal action.”
• Polls suggest Beijing’s rhetoric is resonating with other countries, as Beijing offers itself as a new partner of choice to provide stability in an uncertain world. Its actions instead suggest it intends to divide democracies and create more freedom of action for Beijing.

Archived article

“We are ready to work with the international community, including Australia, to safeguard the victory in the Second World War and the international system with the United Nations at its core,” said Wang Yi (王毅), foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), to Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on February 21 [...] This is the latest statement over many years in which the PRC presents its foreign policy as reinforcing the international order that the United States and Europe claimed to uphold.

However, Beijing’s status quo language belies the fundamental changes to the international order that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been pursuing. Beijing has benefited enormously from the international system to date, but especially when other powers are restrained by rules it claims are biased and so chooses not to follow.

[...]

Since early 2017, Beijing has presented the PRC as a responsible power that upholds the status quo of the old international order. That message has often come from the very top. [...] For example, Xi Jinping told the World Economics Forum in January 2017 that “We should adhere to multilateralism to uphold the authority and efficacy of multilateral institutions. We should honor promises and abide by rules.”

[...]

Later, Wang Yi told the China-France Strategic Dialogue “China adheres to multilateralism and supports the rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core” (FMPRC, January 24, 2019). The refrain has continued to the present day. Last fall, Xi criticized European tariffs on electric vehicles at the 19th G20 Summit, saying, “We should press ahead with reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO) [and] oppose unilateralism and protectionism … It is important to avoid politicizing economic issues, avoid fragmenting the global market, and avoid taking protectionist moves in the name of green and low-carbon development."

[...]

These words from the CCP leadership may be soothing to the outside world, but they diverge sharply from internally oriented words for the Party faithful that emphasize struggle and change [...]. Here and with select partners, Xi has been clear for years about his desire to change the international system. In his first international trip as CCP general secretary in 2013, Xi told a Russian audience about the need for a “New Type of International Relations” that amounts to a fundamental restructuring of the values embedded in international institutions and the application of the CCP’s so-called “consultative democracy” on a global scale [...]. More recently, Xi’s speech at a study session of the Central Committee in 2023—which was reprinted in the 2025 New Year’s issue of Qiushi, the Party’s theory journal—repeatedly noted the challenge that the PRC’s development constitutes to the Western-centric order.

[...]

This divergence in rhetoric suggests that the words of CCP leaders should not be taken at face value and that instead Beijing should be judged by its actions. However, there, too, it has consistently violated rules and norms that do not align with its preferences.

[...]

One notable example of Beijing’s claim to uphold international law is in the South China Sea. In 2002, Beijing entered into a non-binding agreement, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations. This committed the parties to “universally recognized principles of international law” and noted “their respect for and commitment to the freedom of navigation in and over flight above the South China Sea” per the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

[...]

Beijing’s behavior gives lie to these commitments. In 2016, a Tribunal [...] found unanimously in the Philippines favor that the PRC had breached its obligations under no fewer than 16 articles of the Convention, was often “aware of, tolerated, protected, and failed to prevent” harmful activities, and “has not cooperated or coordinated with the other States bordering the South China Sea” to attempt to resolve them.

[...]

In 2024, the spokesperson for the PRC Embassy in Manila responded to a question about the ruling, characterizing is as “essentially a political circus dressed up as a legal action … China does not accept or recognize it, and will never accept any claim or action thereon”.

[...]

Last year, the PRC Coast Guard escalated the confrontation with Philippine counterparts, leading to physical ship-to-ship altercations in which at least 8 sailors were injured powerful water cannons to damage Philippines supply ships [...] The PRC has claimed areas like the sea around Second Thomas Shoal where these clashes took place as its own territorial waters. As such, it argues that freedom of navigation does not apply and that the Coast Guard can engage in so-called domestic law enforcement operations. Such aggressive and dangerous operations have continued in 2025 and remain in violation of international law (YouTube/Associated Press, February 1).

Other examples also reveal Beijing’s commitment to international order and global governance as a cynical effort to exploit the rules. In reality, its policies have capitalized on the restraint of other countries in areas like trade and international law. For instance, Wang Yi’s discussion of international cooperation in the auto sector is undermined by the PRC’s predatory, brute-force economics that have long been antithetical to the trading order.

[...]

Additionally, the PRC has used the World Bank to legitimize its mass repression in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region through vocational programs.

[...]

Beijing’s ostensible support for international rules and institutions that restrain the United States and European powers will continue to be a theme as long as the CCP leadership sees that the narrative has traction. Concerns about the Trump Administration’s inconsistency make the CCP’s status quo narrative seem soothing. However, American and European governments should not mistake these narratives for anything other than a wedge to divide democracies and create more freedom of action for Beijing.

[...]

Political scientists and economists have traditionally argued the more economic prosperity a country has, the more democratic it becomes - but Professor Ian MacKenzie from University of Queensland’s School of Economics in Australia says the relationship is not simple.

“When a country’s income is very low, survival is the focus and the marginal benefits of consumption of material goods is very high,” Professor MacKenzie said.

“Essentially, when you don’t have much, an extra dollar is very, very valuable to you.

“Because of that, you won’t invest time in political activism, you’ll invest it in working to increase your income.”

Professor MacKenzie, along with economists Dr Dario Debowicz (Swansea University), Professor Alex Dickson (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow) and Associate Professor Petros Sekeris (Toulouse Business School), looked at data from every country between 1800 to 2010 to analyse their income and democratic score.

They hypothesised the relationship between the income of a country and its level of democracy is not linear but instead forms a U-shape.

Professor MacKenzie said when societies reach a high level of income, the curve shifts towards increased democratisation.

“As income increases, there comes a turning point at which your income has increased so much you start to value improvements in political freedoms,” he said.

“People feel more empowered to challenge authorities.

“A lot of people believe there is no link between income and democracy, or that there is a positive link – as in more income equals more democracy.

“What we’ve shown is that it’s more complicated than that.”

Professor MacKenzie said China was a country to watch in that it has experienced extraordinary economic growth over the past 4 decades while remaining an authoritarian state.

“The U-shaped theory suggests political uprisings could occur if economic growth continues,” he said.

“China has many citizens who are benefitting from the country opening its markets and increasing its GDP (gross domestic product) so there’s a lot of evidence to suggest they may start craving democratic principles.”

The research was published in Springer Nature.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31273505

Switzerland is often considered the human rights capital of the world due to the presence of numerous international organisations. However, for Uyghurs and Tibetans living in the country, who still feel they can’t escape China’s surveillance, intimidation and threats, it’s also seen as a place where they often confront their cross-border oppressors.

“We are aware that we are subjected to surveillance, especially on the internet,” Arya Amipa, co-president of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe, who lives in Switzerland, told SWI swissinfo.ch. “We keep receiving suspicious emails asking us to send confidential data, such as renewing our email passwords, from what at first glance appears to be our email provider. It’s only when you look closer that you notice the email address changes when you hover over it.”

Amipa believes that the Chinese government is behind these phishing operations with targets in the Tibetan diaspora communities. So “we have to protect ourselves by using end-to-end encrypted messengers, two-factor identification, and VPN clients”, even when communicating with others in Switzerland.

[...]

A recently released report, “Situation of Tibetans and Uyghurs in Switzerland”, based on the findings of a University of Basel study commissioned by the Swiss government. This details extensive surveillance and pressure tactics by Chinese authorities against Tibetan and Uyghur individuals residing in Switzerland.

The research report [commissioned by the Swiss government and published by the Swiss University of Basel] concluded that it’s “highly probable” that members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities in Switzerland are “systematically monitored, threatened, and co-opted by actors from China”. The Swiss government added that “the extent and intensity of the forms of pressure identified in this research report are more likely to be underreported than overreported”. This is partly because the perpetrators often operate in the shadows and the targets fear reprisals if they speak out about their experiences.

[...]

China’s transnational repression has become a hot topic over the past year, but the phenomenon is not new. Some Western governments have taken steps in recent years to address the issue more meaningfully.

[...]

The World Uyghur Congress confirms that Uyghurs face increasing levels of transnational repression abroad through surveillance technologies including WeChat and the Integrated Joint Operations Platform (IJOP), a policing program based on big data analytics in Xinjiang, harassment through video and phone calls, malware, spyware, hacking and espionage. But “we are not aware of any resources or tools available to address this issue within the Swiss context” it [said].

[...]

Some 8,000 Tibetans are estimated to live in Switzerland, making it one of the largest Tibetan exile communities outside India. The Uyghur community, however, is in the double or low triple digits. Both communities have awaited the Swiss report for years.

[...]

Switzerland followed a “change through trade” approach regarding China for decades. That means Switzerland believed that trade would bring about positive changes, including a greater emphasis on human rights, as China gradually opened up. But the past ten years have shown the opposite to be true. China’s treatment of Tibetans and Uyghurs, including the diaspora, has deteriorated sharply.

Regarding the actions of the Swiss authorities, the research report indicates that a perceived tightening of restrictions on peaceful demonstrations and asylum practices is described as a form of pressure.

For example, the documents of Tibetans in Switzerland used to give “stateless” as their country of origin. Now it says “China”. This change forces Tibetans to have regular contact with the Chinese consulate, exposing them to registration and further surveillance and intimidation by Chinese officials who remind them not to engage in political activities.

Migmar Dolma, a 33-year-old Swiss citizen of Tibetan heritage, expressed [...] her disappointment at the Swiss authorities’ hesitance and failure to address the violation of the democratic rights of Tibetans in the country.

At a political demonstration in 2014 [in Switzerland], she was forcibly grabbed, pushed and held to the ground by Chinese embassy officials. She filed a complaint against an unknown person in the footage, but the case was rejected by the public prosecutor. She believes the decision was politically motivated.

The benefits of democratic societies go beyond greater personal freedoms and liberties. A new study by a UC Riverside economics professor has found that democratic systems of government also lead to higher participation by women in the labor market.

[...]

To understand this phenomenon, [UC Riverside Associate Professor and study author Ugo Antonio] Troiano found evidence that democratic rule reduces discriminatory attitudes toward women in the workplace.

[...]

The study also suggests that democracies create more female role models, further encouraging women to enter the labor force.

Troiano said his findings align with what we know from political economy and development economics: people are inspired by leaders who resemble them. If all political figures are men, young boys are more likely to aspire to leadership positions, while girls are not. Democracies help correct such imbalances.

“The role model hypothesis suggests that when young women see other women in professional roles during their impressionable years, they are more likely to pursue careers themselves,” he said. “Male dictators may serve as role models only for boys, while female politicians, who are more common in democracies, are more likely to inspire girls as well.”

[...]

Troiano’s findings carry important implications for policymakers. Policies that protect democracy are not just about protecting political rights—they also have tangible economic benefits, particularly for women. Free and fair elections, gender-inclusive governance, and legal protections for women may also be effective tools for increasing female labor market participation and the resulting economic benefits, Troiano said.

[...]

Previous research shows that greater female participation in the workforce can lead to reduced poverty, higher GDP growth, and increased innovation.

Troiano’s research builds on the work of Harvard University economist Claudia Goldin, who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for research that documented the historical barriers women face in the workforce and the economic factors influencing gender disparities. While Goldin provided a historical and economic analysis of gender disparities, Troiano demonstrated how political and institutional structures around the globe influence these disparities over time.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31226135

[This is a piece by Dr. Kerry McElroy, cultural historian and founder of The Sága Project: An International Women's Journalism and Oral History Collective.]

In 2022, numerous phone calls were intercepted between Russian soldiers and wives and girlfriends about raping Ukrainian women. Roman Bykovsky and wife Olga Bykovska went viral on one such call, in which the wife laughingly encouraged her husband to rape Ukrainian women as long as he used a condom.

From the first year of the war into the second and third, the greatest site of sexual war crimes has moved from civilian young women to male POWs. One of the favorite "games" of the occupying Russians has involved spinning the wheel of the field telephone then making a call, electrocuting the prisoner connected to its wire. It has varied genital electrocution, known as "Zelensky’s Call", with anal electrocution, known as "Biden’s Call".

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31223771

Archived

In January 2025, Memorial Human Rights Center members visited Ukraine and conducted the first monitoring mission by Russian observers since the start of the full-scale invasion. They visited the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions, along with the cities of Poltava and Odesa. During the trip, Memorial’s team documented violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes committed by the Russian army. The group plans to present its findings later this spring. Meduza spoke with Memorial observer Vladimir Malykhin about what he saw in Ukraine and why the monitoring mission is crucial to improving our understanding of contemporary Russia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30805532

Archived

China scored 9 out of 100 and was rated “not free” in the Freedom in the World 2025 report by Freedom House, which ranked 195 countries and 13 territories on political rights and civil liberties for 2024.

"China’s authoritarian regime has become increasingly repressive in recent years. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to tighten control over all aspects of life and governance, including the state bureaucracy, the media, online speech, religious practice, universities, businesses, and civil society associations," the report reads.

In Freedom House’s transnational repression report released in mid-February, China was named a major perpetrator of transnational repression in 2024. The Chinese regime has also been the “most prolific perpetrator” of transnational repression over the past decade, according to the NGO.

Chinese regime-controlled Hong Kong scored 40 points and was listed as a “partly free” territory. Taiwan continued to be rated “free,” with 94 points.

Hong Kong earned 9 points in political rights and 31 points in civil liberties, for a total score of 40 points. It dropped a point from last year to reach a new low of 40, down from 61 in 2017.

[...]

“The territory’s most prominent prodemocracy figures have been arrested under its provisions, and NSL charges or the threat of charges have resulted in the closure of political parties, major independent news outlets, peaceful nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and unions,” the summary reads.

Tibet under the CCP’s rule scored 0 points and continued to be listed as a “not free” territory. Specifically, Tibet received minus 2 points for “political rights” and 2 points for “civil liberties.”

Freedom House noted that “Tibet is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government based in Beijing, with local decision-making power concentrated in the hands of Chinese party officials. Residents of both Han Chinese and Tibetan ethnicity are denied fundamental rights, and authorities are especially rigorous in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans.”

The report did not separately assess freedom in the Xinjiang region, the Uyghur region ruled by the CCP.

[...]

Sun Kuo-Hsiang, professor of international affairs and business at Nanhua University in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times on Feb. 27 that Freedom House’s report is credible, as “it truthfully reflects the control model of China’s current political system, legal environment, and social system.”

He said the main reason for the lack of freedom is the political system in mainland China, which is a totalitarian model.

“From the perspective of democratic standards, there are no elections, no multiparty competition, and citizens have no real right to participate in politics,” Sun said.

In the short term, the situation in China will get worse, he said.

“With China’s expanding of its influence, especially in the global south [developing countries], those countries are facing the same situation,” Sun said.

[...]

The CCP’s attitude toward overseas dissidents will not change either, he noted.

“It will only intensify overseas surveillance, cyberattacks, espionage, and other transnational repression activities to suppress them,” he said.

In the long run, the CCP’s transnational repression may backfire on China’s global influence. According to Sun, it may “weaken China’s soft power, and cause more countries to take precautionary measures against China.”

[...]

He suggested that Western countries strengthen their precautions against the CCP’s export of its totalitarianism and transnational repression by “restricting the CCP setting up institutions in their countries … paying special attention to the institutions established by the CCP, providing political asylum to Chinese people, and legislating to protect dissidents.”

Lai said everyone who has lived in China can relate to the political life reflected in the freedom index.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30756587

As of this year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - [which plays a crucial role in sustainable development with over 7,300 projects across three continents] - will start implementing its updated Environmental and Social Policy and Access to Information Policy. These policies set the EBRD’s environmental, social, and human rights standards, as well as obligations for its public and private sector clients. Feedback from civil society organisations like Bankwatch, project-affected communities, and institutions such as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has led to significant improvements in transparency, stakeholder engagement, and human rights due diligence. However, accountability gaps remain.

One of the most significant improvements is the EBRD’s commitment to greater transparency. The EBRD will now proactively disclose environmental and social information, reducing barriers for stakeholders seeking access. Additionally, it has introduced a public interest override to prioritise transparency over non-disclosure commitments when necessary.

[...]

In the past, public transport projects in Sarajevo and Tbilisi lacked transparency, excluding citizens from decision-making. [...] As a result, concerns raised by women and other vulnerable groups regarding routes, security, and accessibility were overlooked. The new transparency commitments should help prevent such oversights.

[...]

The new policies require financial intermediary banks to establish grievance mechanisms, disclose their environmental and social management systems, and report on implementation. This is a step forward, but it remains unclear how affected individuals will be informed of their rights and access to the EBRD accountability mechanisms when needed.

[...]

Another improvement is a new EBRD commitment to disclose the amounts and sources of technical assistance funding and grant financing. It also lowers the threshold for publishing project summaries for grant-funded activities not tied to specific projects. However, without a requirement to disclose outcomes, accountability remains weak, especially for public-sector initiatives.

For example, in the Karaganda WWTP Modernisation project in Kazakhstan, the EBRD allocated over EUR 1 million in technical assistance for a feasibility study and environmental and social impact assessment. Civil society groups raised concerns that the proposed plant might not meet the growing population’s needs or address water losses from outdated infrastructure. However, a lack of public access to the feasibility study undermined consultation efforts and limited the project’s potential benefits for essential infrastructure development.

[...]

For the first time, the EBRD has formally recognised human rights as a core element of project assessment and management. The updated Environmental and Social Policy requires projects to factor in governance risks, civic space restrictions, and stakeholder concerns, ensuring a more context-specific approach to risk management.

For instance, the EBRD will now have to consider risks posed by laws restricting civil society in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia, the criminalisation of LGBTIQ+ people in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, media censorship in Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, and the absence of civil liberties in Egypt and Turkey. These risks should inform project categorisation, impact assessments, mitigation measures, and monitoring and accountability frameworks.

Another notable step forward is the EBRD’s commitment to assessing retaliation risks and working with clients to prevent reprisals against project-affected people, a provision that the Environmental and Social Policy had previously overlooked. It now introduces requirements for clients to develop relevant policies and ensure stakeholder engagement is free from harassment and reprisals. However, given that the clients themselves are often responsible for these acts of retaliation, the EBRD must first and foremost strengthen its own due diligence processes to hold clients accountable whenever these risks arise.

[...]

Additionally, the Environmental and Social Policy mandates assessments of digitalisation risks and supply-chain impacts, which are particularly relevant given the EBRD’s focus on green investment. The policy’s commitment to using sex-disaggregated data to capture gender-specific impacts is another welcome development.

[...]

Civil society has long criticised the EBRD’s reliance on client-provided information and its consistent lack of independent verification. The new policy requires the EBRD to integrate stakeholder perspectives into risk assessments and enhance external validation of reported data.

For projects with significant community impacts, the EBRD may now conduct its own stakeholder consultations before approval, adding a layer of accountability. However, simply considering the views of stakeholders is not enough. The EBRD must also proactively seek out their opinions, particularly in countries with democratic deficits. For instance, the problematic Amulsar gold mine and Indorama Agro cotton projects, both backed by the EBRD, show how things can go badly wrong when the views of stakeholders are ignored and the early warnings of civil society organisations are not heeded.

[...]

Additionally, the new requirement for trade union consultations means the EBRD must foster an environment where independent workers’ organisations can thrive without undue influence from the client. As a case in point, the replacement of a democratically elected union with a less representative coalition on the Indorama Agro project in Uzbekistan illustrates the risks of failing to ensure these enabling conditions are met.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30750704

Today, March 10, 2025, Tibetans worldwide commemorate the 1959 uprising in Tibet.

After nearly 70 years of repressive Chinese state rule, government policies that seek to forcibly assimilate non-Han peoples in China under President Xi Jinping represent an alarming turn for the worse for Tibetans.

While the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang received global attention, the slow drip of news about its intensifying repression against Tibetans has garnered less notice due to ever more intrusive and watertight policing, surveillance, and censorship in Tibetan areas.

In Tibet, there is no independent civil society, freedom of expression, association, assembly, or religion. Under the pretext of national policing campaigns such as “the anti-gang crime crackdown” and the “anti-fraud” crackdown, the Chinese government has decimated what little Tibetan civil society remained, shut down Tibetan websites that promote Tibetan language and culture, and closed privately funded schools; even those that followed the government-approved curriculum.

Tibetans are told how to live their lives: use Mandarin Chinese as the medium of instruction in schools, relocate en masse from their long-established villages to new government-built and managed settlements, silently witness their rivers being dammed to generate electricity for large-scale mining or to power regions far away in China. Any questioning of government policies, however mild, can result in arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, and long-term imprisonment.

[...]

Governments that profess support for the human rights of Tibetans should step up their assistance to Tibetan groups worldwide that document rights and report on abuses in Tibet, advocate in international forums, and seek to preserve Tibetan identity and culture.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2134965

Archived

** "If the whole world could hear me, I would say that we need to win this war as soon as possible so that all children can see their families again..." - Those words come from 12-year-old Sashko from the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol, who was separated from his mother by Russians during the so-called "filtration" procedure in the Donetsk region.**

Sashko is one of the thousands of children taken to the Russian Federation from the occupied regions of Ukraine under the guise of evacuation and ensuing rehabilitation ,to teach them to "love Russia."

On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of facilitating the forced deportation of children from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

[...]

**How Russian "filtration" works **

Last spring, Sashko was cooking with his mother Snizhana over a fire in partially occupied Mariupol. The shelling started, they did not have time to run to the shelter, and a piece of shrapnel hit the boy in the eye. In search of medical care, his mother took him to the Ilyich steel plant, where Ukrainian military doctors treated the wounded.

The Russian military took the boy's mother for re-interrogation. He never saw her again.

But later, the occupiers took them prisoner and sent them to a filtration camp in Donetsk Oblast. There, Sashko and his mother were met by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and registered. After that, the Russian military took the boy's mother, to interrogate her further. He never saw her again.

Sashko was held in the "republican trauma center" for two months until he found a way to call his grandmother, who eventually managed to take him away.

Doctors now say that Sashko won't be able to out of his injured eye. The fate of Sashko's mother, Snizhana, is still unknown.

[...]

Rhetorics such as "your parents don't need you" and "you don't have a future in Ukraine" is one of the propaganda methods used by Russians with Ukrainian children living in Russian-occupied regions, or who have been taken to Russia.

"They say that Ukraine has abandoned you; they teach you to hate your parents, then your country, and then to love Russia," says lawyer Myroslava Kharchenko.

[...]

"Whenever they played the Russian anthem, we would put on our headphones and listen to the Ukrainian anthem," says 16-year-old Vitaliy, who was sent to a camp in Crimea last fall.

"On New Year's Eve, we had to watch Putin's address, and some of us left the room and started shouting 'Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!" says Taisiya, 16 too. She says that children who disobeyed their teachers were locked up for several days in an "isolation room."

[...]

"On some of the Ukrainian territories, children have lived under Russian propaganda for eight years. They are taught to see Ukraine as an enemy," says Aksana Filipishyna. Such measures can contribute to the fact that, in a few years, these children will end up hating their homeland. Like, for example, this 20-year-old soldier I met at one of the checkpoints in occupied Donetsk last fall. He was born there. When the war started in 2014, he was 11 years old, almost like Sashko from Mariupol. Now he is convinced that he is fighting for his homeland and against the Nazis. He grew up on Russian propaganda.

[...]

Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30703914

Archived

The Italian government approved a draft law that for the first time introduces the legal definition of femicide in the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life imprisonment.

The move, announced on the eve of International Women’s Day on Saturday, aims at tackling a shocking string of killings and violence targeting women in Italy through strengthening measures against gender-based crimes like stalking and revenge porn.

The proposal, agreed on late Friday, still needs to go through parliament and must be approved by both chambers to become law.

“This is an extremely significant bill, which introduces the crime of femicide in our legal system as an autonomous crime, punishing it with life imprisonment,” said conservative Premier Giorgia Meloni, who strongly backed the initiative.

“It introduces aggravating circumstances and increases sentences for crimes including personal mistreatment, stalking, sexual violence and revenge porn,” she said in a statement.

[...]

Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30697680

Archived

Feminism is still a dirty word in China: Organised feminist activism is nearly impossible in the country in 2025, but Chinese women are still talking

https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/feminism-still-dirty-word-china

In March 2015, Beijing police arrested and detained a group of young women planning to hand out stickers on the subway on International Women’s Day opposing sexual harassment. They were jailed for more than a month, received “criminal suspect” status, and remain under surveillance today. These women became known as the Feminist Five.

Ten years later, and people are still talking about what happened.

[...]

China has dropped 37 ranks in the Global Gender Gap Index – run by the World Economic Forum of which China is an advocate – since Xi Jinping became Communist Party General Secretary in 2012. The Communist Party diminishes the role of women in public office. For the first time in decades, there is not one woman among the 24 Politburo members, China’s executive policymaking body. Party spokespeople often encourage more traditional roles for women – as caretakers and mothers – to address an ageing population. And the Party has made it harder for women to organise or advocate for themselves in China, using online censorship and the 2017 Overseas NGO Law to stifle dissent among civil society.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2094988

• Before the British government handed over Hong Kong in 1997, China agreed to allow the region considerable political autonomy for fifty years under a framework known as “one country, two systems.”
• In recent years, Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong’s freedoms, stoking mass protests in the city and drawing international criticism.
• Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 that gave it broad new powers to punish critics and silence dissenters, which has fundamentally altered life for Hong Kongers.

Archived

China pledged to preserve much of what makes Hong Kong unique when the former British colony was handed over in 1997. Beijing said it would give Hong Kong fifty years to keep its capitalist system and enjoy many freedoms not found in mainland Chinese cities.

But more than halfway through the transition, Beijing has taken increasingly brazen steps to encroach on Hong Kong’s political system and crack down on dissent. In 2020, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong. Since then, authorities have arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists, lawmakers, and journalists; curbed voting rights; and limited freedoms of the press and speech. In March 2024, Hong Kong lawmakers passed Article 23, an additional security legislation that further cements China’s rule on the city’s rights and freedom. These moves have not only drawn international condemnation, but have also raised questions about Hong Kong’s status as a global financial hub and dimmed hopes that the city will ever become a full-fledged democracy.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30410703

New data released by the Chinese Communist Party's internal policing body shows a major 46.15% increase in the use of the Liuzhi system from 2023 to 2024. Over the course of last year, 38,000 people were detained by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Liuzhi, or retention in custody, is very similar in design to the better-known residential surveillance at a designated location system (RSDL), which is traditionally used against lawyers, rights defenders and dissidents.

Both systems consist of incommunicado detentions in solitary confinement at secret locations for a period of up to six months.

Unlike RSDL however, the Liuzhi system resides entirely outside the legal system and is treated as an internal party matter (even though many of its victims are likely not party members). In Liuzhi, one does not even theoretically have a right to legal counsel.

For more information on CCDI, Liuzhi and related issues, see our longer report on this (16 Dec 2024).

Key findings from the latest report on the use of Liuzhi:

• The number of investigations of “discipline violations” rose from 626,000 in 2023 to 877,000 in 2024, an increase of 40.09%.

• The number of people placed into Liuzhi rose from 26,000 in 2023 to 38,000 in 2024, an increase of 46.15%.

• Based on the above, the use of Liuzhi, the harshest form of investigation, rose not only in total number of instances used, but also relative to all investigations: 4.15% of those investigated placed into Liuzhi 2023, and 4.33% of those investigated placed into Liuzhi 2024.

• Of the 889,000 people given disciplinary sanctions of any sort, 17,000 regarded people in the financial sector, 94,000 within State-Owned Enterprises, and 60,000 people within the pharmaceutical sector.

• The** total number of victims since the system was implemented in 2018 is now likely close to - or slightly above - 200,000**. All are victims of the CCDI’s systematic and widespread use of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and torture (due to the prolonged use of solitary confinement).

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2078708

The Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide released a report in January 2025, “Eight Years On, China’s Repression of the Uyghurs Remains Dire: How China’s Policies in the Uyghur Region Have and Have Not Changed.” The report is authored by Rian Thum, Senior Lecturer in East Asian History, at the University of Manchester.

[...]

The [new] report finds that, given the available information, all of the policies that led to accusations of mass atrocities in the Uyghur region continue, and some are expanding. These findings should prompt deeper research into the nature of mass atrocities facing the Uyghur population and spark urgent, effective responses. In particular, the report recommends further research into emerging repressive strategies, including the intense network of electronic and human surveillance, curbs on religious practice, and the destruction of cultural heritage.

[...]

A list of boarding schools (pdf) newly built or expanded with new dormitories in 2023 and 2024. The sources are Chinese government construction tenders (formal requests for bids from contractors on a project) and state-approved media, with links to the sources provided in the table. Some of the sites are geolocated by comparison using details from the tender or media sources.

A list of prisons and kanshousuo (pdf), a type of internment facility, that have either been newly built or expanded from 2019 onward. Geolocation (associating names of documented facilities to exact coordinates) is based on the work and available sources on the Xinjiang Victims Database. Expansion and new construction dates are based on data satellite imagery, in most cases from Google Earth.

Using the list of kanshousuo identified by Xinjiang Victims Database from satellite imagery and government documents, this spreadsheet (pdf) provides an estimate of total kanshousuo capacity in Xinjiang at Chinese government standards. Government standards, available at Archive Today, dictate cell capacity of eight or 16 prisoners for the two standard cell sizes. Cell sizes and numbers were identified from the unroofed outdoor section that is mandated for each cell and is visible in satellite imagery. Google Earth and Apple Maps were the sources for satellite imagery.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30223092

Tibetans have worked to protect the Tibetan language and resisted efforts to enforce Mandarin Chinese. Yet, Tibetan children are losing their language through enrolment in state boarding schools where they are being educated nearly exclusively in Mandarin Chinese. Tibetan is typically only taught a few times a week – not enough to sustain the language.

[...]

[Beijing's] Government policy forces all Tibetans to learn and use Mandarin Chinese. Those who speak only Tibetan have a harder time finding work and are faced with discrimination and even violence from the dominant Han ethnic group.

[...]

Meanwhile, support for Tibetan language education has slowly been whittled away: the government even recently banned students from having private Tibetan lessons or tutors on their school holidays.

Linguistic minorities in Tibet all need to learn and use Mandarin. But many also need to learn Tibetan to communicate with other Tibetans: classmates, teachers, doctors, bureaucrats or bosses.

[...]

The government refuses to provide any opportunities to use and learn minority languages like Manegacha. It also tolerates constant discrimination and violence against Manegacha speakers by other Tibetans.

These [Chinese] assimilationist state policies are causing linguistic diversity across Tibet to collapse. As these minority languages are lost, people’s mental and physical health suffers and their social connections and communal identities are destroyed.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/2050069

Here is the article as pdf.

Drawing on the author’s own experience, this paper explores the rarely researched experience of sibling abortion under China’s One-Child Policy [1979 and 2015] through a psychodynamic lens.

The author uses writing as a method of inquiry to delve into the emotional impact of losing a younger brother to abortion due to the One-Child Policy and to dialogue with relevant psychodynamic literature on loss and grief.

The main body of this paper consists of three separate yet interrelated sections.

• In the first section, drawing on the concept of The Dead Mother, the author explores the possible impact of her mother’s bereavement of a second child on the author’s emotional life in her formative years.

• The second section draws on psychodynamic literature on melancholia to understand how the lost life of an aborted brother is kept alive in the author’s psyche and the ambivalence this brings to the author’s psychical world.

• The third section is an analysis of the first two sections, constructing an understanding of the missing psychosocial elements in the first two sections.

This paper gives voice to the longing and mourning brought by sibling abortion under China's One-Child Policy, presenting the author’s process of trying to understand such experiences and attempt to understand the personal and the psychical under the influence of the political.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/30111516

[...]

The punishment had “no place” in the 21st century, [UN human rights chief Volker] Türk, continued, noting that “the top executing countries over recent years" include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and the United States.

[...]

Latest UN data indicates that in 2023, 1,153 executions took place in 16 countries, representing a 31 per cent increase from 2022 and the highest number in the past eight years.

“That followed a 53 per cent increase in executions between 2021 and 2022,” the High Commissioner said, adding that the figures do not take into account China, “where there is a lack of transparent information and statistics on the death penalty. I call on the Chinese authorities to change this policy and join the trend towards abolition.”

[...]