Reports on China’s Bad Lending Data Disappear on Chinese Social Media (www.bloomberg.com)
- Total credit demand in China fell in April for first time since 2005*- China has increasingly hidden negative data in recent years*...
Research and espionage: an institute staffed by Russian intelligence officers is recruiting students and scientists abroad (theins.ru)
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Austrian weapons continue to flow to Russia despite EU sanctions and Austria's stance of neutrality, which Vienna uses to justify its refusal to officially supply weapons to Ukraine (theins.ru)
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China's anger grows as Myanmar has chosen Russia for the construction of a strategic seaport, despite Beijing's interest in the project (swarajyamag.com)
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Putin in China seeking support for Ukraine war effort (www.dw.com)
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing Wednesday for two days of meetings with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Putin’s second trip to China in six months will focus on military and financial assistance....
Concerns grow about the wellbeing of Chinese journalists Zhang Zhan after supposed jail release as she failed to make contact with the outside world (www.theguardian.com)
Zhang Zhan, 40, a lawyer turned citizen journalist, was detained in May 2020 after she travelled to Wuhan to report on the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her videos and social media posts drew attention to the government’s stifling of information about the spread of the disease and the harsh lockdowns that were being...
U.S. warned Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) access to dollar system could be curbed over Russia (www.reuters.com)
TLDR: RBI, the largest Western bank in Russia, has been warned by the U.S. Treasury about financial system access in a letter voicing concerns over its Russian business. Concerns remain even though RBI dropped plans to sell its Russia-business to sanctioned billionaire Deripaska. Austrian finance ministry says it assumes RBI...
Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico ‘in life-threatening condition’ after shooting – Europe live (www.theguardian.com)
The Hill: US Army intel officer resigns in protest of US-Israel policy; IDF abuse of Gazan prisoners exposed (thehill.com)
A segment on The Hill that cites The Intercept and Democracy Now, and calls out the media downplaying credible accusations of IDF mistreatment of prisoners, including prior to Oct 7? Did I wake up in upside-down world today?
Taiwan: disinformation campaigns on Chinese-language media exploiting Russia invasion in Ukraine, spreading false anti-western arratives while fueling tensions with China (tfc-taiwan.org.tw)
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Women are leading the charge for gig worker rights in Thailand (restofworld.org)
"This model acts as a subsidy for Chinese companies": Pakistan's Gwadar port exposes China's Belt and Road failure (www.dw.com)
Pakistan’s Gwadar port was meant to be a shining success for the prestigious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), part of China’s global collection of infrastructure projects and trade networks known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But almost two decades later, it still sits empty....
China accused of targeting citizens studying abroad for political activism, with some students reporting harassment of family members back home (english.alarabiya.net)
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While Xi tours Europe, China feeds Russia's war machine (kyivindependent.com)
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Protesters march again in Georgia over foreign influence bill, holding Georgian and EU flags, chanting “no to the Russian law” (www.bbc.com)
Tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Saturday evening to protest a controversial “foreign influence” bill backed by the government....
China is still harrassing dissidents who fled in the 1990s. And that is increasingly causing friction with democracies over issues of espionage, surveillance and human rights (www.bbc.com)
Three decades ago, Chinese dissidents were being smuggled out of the country in a secret operation called Yellow Bird - but as one of them tells the BBC, Beijing is still pursuing them....
Chinese volunteers joined Hungarian security to harass Tibet protesters during Xi Jinping visit in Budapest (www.tibetanreview.net)
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GPS jamming represents shift in Russian attacks on Baltics which affects "daily lives of people in our region", Lithuanian foreign minister says (www.lrt.lt)
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US overtakes China as Germany's top trading partner (www.reuters.com)
The United States overtook China as Germany’s most important trading partner in the first quarter of this year, according to Reuters’ calculations based on official data from the German statistics office....
Israeli whistleblowers detail horror of shadowy detention facility for Palestinians | CNN (edition.cnn.com)
At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him.
European firms that rank China as a top investment destination has hit a record low, could take years to restore confidence, lobby group says (www.euractiv.com)
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Head of PR at China's biggest search engine Baidu apologised after her comments glorifying a work-till-you-drop culture sparked public outcry (www.bbc.com)
In a series of videos posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, Qu Jing, said she had no responsibility for employees’ well-being “as I’m not your mother”....
"A genocidal government": Discussion with Cosette Wu, the woman behind the Harvard speech disruption criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (focustaiwan.tw)
Link to the archived version....
Philippine military chief accuses China of 'malign influence effort' to distract from 'the China coast guard's ongoing aggressive behaviour' (www.reuters.com)
The Philippines’ military chief accused China of a “malign influence effort” on Wednesday, after a local newspaper reported a Filipino vice admiral had made a deal with Beijing to de-escalate tensions in the South China Sea....