China and Russia used the second day of the BRICS Summit of emerging economies to criticize the West, while also throwing their support behind the proposed expansion of what’s seen by some as an alternative power bloc.

The leaders of Brazil, India, and China are all in South Africa — which is hosting the event — while Russian President Vladimir Putin is participating virtually to avoid arrest under an International Criminal Court warrant over war crimes in Ukraine.

Via video link, Putin — who ordered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year — said the West’s actions had led to that conflict by trying to “promote their hegemony,” “exceptionalism,” and policies of “neo-colonialism.” 

“Our actions in Ukraine are guided by only one thing, to put an end to the war that was unleashed by the West,” said Putin, speaking through a translator. 

Meanwhile, the leaders of Brazil and South Africa stressed the need for a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war — though there were no words of criticism for Moscow. 

For his part, Chinese leader Xi Jinping noted the world was undergoing major shifts and had entered a new period of “turbulence and transformation.” He blamed countries that form “exclusive blocs” for the problems. 

“The cold war mentality is still haunting our world and the geopolitical situation is getting tense,” he said through a translator. 

Xi had baffled China-watchers the day before by failing to turn up when the leaders each made a first-day address, instead sending his commerce minister to fill in for him. 

Paul Nantulya, a researcher at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said one could only speculate. 

“What I think is happening is there are some headwinds back home in China …which are upsetting the domestic dynamic, and I think something must have erupted that required the president’s attention,” he said. 

In other developments, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw his support behind the group expanding, after reports India was only lukewarm about the idea. 

High on the agenda of this summit is possible expansion of the BRICS group — with Argentina, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia among the countries that have applied to join. 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also expressed support for expansion. However, he said BRICS must not aim to rival the U.S., and Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, also stressed BRICS was not in opposition to anyone. 

“While firmly committed to advance the interests of the Global South, BRICS stands ready to collaborate with all countries that aspire to create a more inclusive international order,” he said. 

Another theme of the summit is de-dollarization and a move towards greater use of the BRICS currencies. Xi said he would like to see reform of the international financial system. 

The summit concludes Thursday, with a final statement from the group expected. 

 
…

Greece’s Supreme Court has ordered an urgent investigation into racist attacks that followed the outbreak of ferocious wildfires in the country’s northeast.

The court order came after search teams found the bodies of 18 migrants who had been burned beyond recognition in a wooded area that had gone up in flames in Alexandroupolis, bordering Turkey. 

In a separate case, a man was arrested late Tuesday after posting a social media video showing him pulling a trailer along a dirt road, then asking another person to swing open the rear door, revealing 13 Syrian and Pakistani migrants, all handcuffed and visibly frightened.

In the video, the man is heard shouting in Greek, “Let’s get organized.” He calls for others to go out and “round them up,” saying, “They will burn us.” 

Vigilantes are ubiquitous in Greece’s rugged northeastern border areas, which are key crossing points for thousands of asylum-seekers sneaking into the country from neighboring Turkey. The high court ordered a crackdown on the vigilantes, who have accused migrants of setting the fires and have incited other locals to go after them. 

Minister of Migration Dimitris Keridis quickly spoke in support of the court’s action against hate crimes.

In Greece, he said, “The law of the land prevails, not those who choose to take it into their own hands.”

Such behavior will be crushed, he said. 

More than 350 wildfires have broken out across the country in the past week, with the worst raging out of control in Alexandroupolis and on the outskirts of Athens, near a national preserve. 

Schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly and a monastery housing nuns have been evacuated. A migrant camp with 800 asylum-seekers in Athens was also cleared out on Wednesday, and migrants moved to another housing facility about 50 kilometers south of the Greek capital, Athens. 

Firefighters across Greece say they fear the worst is yet to come. Searing temperatures and gale-force winds were forecast for several days before rainfall was expected to bring some relief.
…

Turkey’s media regulator has given Voice of America’s Turkish Service a three-day deadline to apply for a broadcast license or face potential criminal charges.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council, or RTUK, on Monday told VOA it needed to apply for an on-demand broadcasting license.

The on-demand license is more commonly acquired by entertainment streaming services such as Netflix.

Failure to comply with the request and pay a three-month license fee would result in the regulator applying to the Criminal Judgeships of Peace with a request to block access to VOA’s content.

The media regulator said it was acting under a Turkish law stating that broadcasting executives who air programs despite the cancellation of their licenses could face charges that carry sentences of up to two years in prison.

The directive comes more than a year after the regulator moved to block VOA’s Turkish language content over the broadcaster’s refusal to comply with the same new licensing regulation, over concerns of censorship.

The RTUK also targeted German news outlet Deutsche Welle, which like VOA, is a public, state-owned international broadcaster with an editorially independent newsroom.’

When RTUK blocked access to VOA’s Turkish service in June 2022, VOA moved to a different web address. The new directive could block access to that content.

VOA’s public relations department confirmed that the regulator had issued a new order requiring the broadcaster to obtain a license within 72 hours.

“As a public service broadcaster designed to provide accurate and objective news, VOA cannot comply with any directive intended to enable censorship,” VOA spokesperson Bridget Serchak said in an email.

“VOA will continue to object to any requirement by Turkish regulators — or regulators in any country where we provide news and information — that smacks of attempts to censor our news coverage,” VOA acting director Yolanda Lopez said in a statement Tuesday.

“The requirement to remain a reliable source of independent journalism for our audience is enshrined in our Charter,” Lopez said, adding, “We will take every step necessary to avoid any interference by anyone that threatens the VOA’s ability to deliver on its mission.”

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it is closely following the situation and is “deeply concerned.”

A spokesperson, speaking on background, told VOA via email that the U.S. urges Turkey to “uphold its obligations and commitments to respect the fundamental freedom of expression.”

“The individual’s rights to freedom of expression includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,” the spokesperson said.

“Respect for freedom of expression is enshrined in Turkey’s constitution and in its international commitments and obligations,” the spokesperson said.

VOA emailed the RTUK regulator late Tuesday and as of publication had not received a response.

The regulator’s deputy head last year had dismissed concerns raised by broadcasters and others over the new regulation, saying the decision “has nothing to do with censorship but is part of technical measures.”

RTUK had previously ordered VOA and two other international broadcasters in February 2022 to apply for a license.

A few months later, it blocked access to VOA’s Turkish-language content and that of Deutsche Welle when both declined to apply for licenses as requested by the regulator.

The February 2022 licensing decision was based on a regulation that had gone into effect in August 2019. At that time, several media freedom advocates raised concerns about possible censorship because the regulation granted RTUK the authority to control all online content.

Under the regulation, RTUK is authorized to request broadcast licenses from “media service providers” so that their radio, TV broadcasting and on-demand audiovisual media services can continue their online presence.

If the licensees do not follow RTUK’s principles, the regulation allows RTUK to impose fines, suspend broadcasting for three months or cancel broadcast licenses

In the past, the U.S. State Department has said that moves to block VOA and DW content in Turkey amounted to an expansion of “government control over freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey. Free press is essential to a robust democracy.”

Turkey has a poor record for media freedom, with watchdog Reporters Without Borders noting that around 90% of media is government controlled, leaving few independent or critical news outlets.

The country, which has one of the worst records globally for jailing journalists, ranks 165 out of 180 on the press freedom Index, where 1 shows the best media environment. 
…

Many Hongkongers who moved to the U.K. after China cracked down on their home city are concerned about their safety while protesting Beijing’s policies or visiting Chinese diplomatic offices to extend travel documents, according to a recent survey.

Initiative SAFE, a research project founded by the group Hongkongers in Britain, conducted an online survey between April 22 and May 7, and released the results on Aug. 17.

Of 458 people who responded, more than 40% had children, and over 50% of all respondents planned to travel to Hong Kong within the next two years. This may require them to obtain travel documents from Chinese diplomatic offices.

The survey found that more than 80% of the respondents had participated in events organized by Hongkonger groups in the U.K. Of this cohort, nearly 90% said that they would check the background of the organizers before participating in any event.

However, only about 40% of the immigrants from Hong Kong in the U.K. said they had participated in rallies or protests related to Hong Kong. Of all the respondents, 37% considered such activities “quite unsafe” or “very unsafe.” A fifth of the 458 survey participants cited concerns about their safety upon returning to Hong Kong as a reason for not participating in Hong Kong-related activities in the U.K.

Among those who had participated in such events, 34% mentioned being photographed by strangers, 8% reported experiencing verbal violence, and 7% felt they were being followed.

VOA Cantonese contacted the Chinese Embassy in London for comment but received no response.  

Almost 80% of the respondents expressed a lack of confidence in the U.K. government’s ability to effectively respond if a foreign government threatened the safety of Hongkongers in the U.K. More than 70% of the respondents believed that the U.K. government had not taken sufficient measures to protect the civic participation and freedom of expression of Hongkongers in the U.K.

“Attempts by foreign governments to coerce, intimidate, harass or harm their critics overseas, undermining democracy and the rule of law, are unacceptable,” said a spokesperson for the U.K. Home Office. “The Defending Democracy Taskforce is reviewing our approach to transnational repression to help tackle these challenges wherever they originate.”

The Home Office describes itself as “the lead U.K. government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, fire, counterterrorism and police.”

The survey indicated that a vast majority of respondents were aware of an incident last October when diplomats at the Chinese Consulate-General in Manchester assaulted a Hong Kong protester outside the consulate. Six Chinese consular officials allegedly involved left the U.K. voluntarily.

About 90% of respondents said they found it unsafe to apply for documents at Chinese diplomatic facilities. They were concerned about the risks of personal data leakage, application hindrances and potential harm to personal safety.

“A large proportion of respondents in our survey were concerned about data leaks as they would have to provide their addresses in the U.K. when extending their passports,” said Jason Chao, a director of Hongkongers in Britain, the organization behind the survey.

“Of course, the data may not be leaked elsewhere, but what would the Hong Kong and Chinese governments do after they collected the addresses? Would there be surveillance? It would be an act of state and you would not know.”

More than 80% of the survey respondents indicated that they felt safe in their residential communities, and that the crime situation was not severe. However, a fifth of the respondents mentioned experiencing verbal harassment on the streets; one tenth reported instances of a stranger insulting or shouting at them in public; and one tenth mentioned feeling physically threatened by a stranger in a public space.

Around 70% of the respondents indicated that anti-burglary measures in their neighborhoods made them feel secure, and more than half believed that their relationships with friends, colleagues and affinity groups were helpful. Two-thirds of the respondents expressed interest in participating in engagement activities organized by the local police, but 7% of respondents expressed a lack of trust in the police.

Chao, a 36-year-old activist who arrived in the U.K. in 2017 for graduate school, suggested that authorities should actively monitor suspicious behavior, such as taking photos of Hong Kong protesters during demonstrations in the U.K.

“There are two elements that are important to us under the U.K.’s new National Security Act. First, it is a criminal offense if someone assists a foreign intelligence service,” he told VOA Cantonese in an Aug. 18 telephone interview.

“Secondly, even if someone is not assisting a foreign intelligence service, if there is evidence showing that a crime, for example a hate-related assault, was instigated by a foreign country, it would be a factor for handing a heavier punishment,” he said.

The new law came into force on July 11. “Russia remains the most acute threat to the UK’s security, though we have seen interference from China including to communities here in the UK, and Iran has made concerted efforts to kill or kidnap British or UK-based individuals,” according to a government release.

Hongkongers living in the U.K. are often unaware of the new law or that the U.K. has a legal weapon to deter the Chinese, Chao said. He would like the U.K. government to promote awareness of the law.

During job searches in the U.K., potential employers may ask Hongkongers to provide a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction. There are safety concerns as they must apply for this document through the Hong Kong Police Force.

The U.K. government should consider measures to reduce the need for Hong Kong residents to rely on Chinese or Hong Kong government services, such as providing a letter for job seekers to address relevant issues with potential employers, said Chao.

The U.K. has issued more than 166,000 visas on the British National (Overseas) visa route to Hongkongers “who are making significant contributions to our economy and local communities,” said the Home Office spokesperson.

This type of British travel document was created in 1987 as a result of the Hong Kong Act of 1985, which made provisions for handing over Hong Kong to China as negotiated in 1984.

Before Hong Kong’s handover to China in July 1997, Hongkongers could apply for a BN(O) passport, which did not grant U.K. citizenship. China stopped recognizing the BN(O) passport as a valid travel document or proof of identity as of January 31, 2021.

After the enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong on June 30, 2020, Britain provided a “pathway to citizenship” via the BN(O) visa beginning January 31, 2021. This allows Hongkongers to live in the U.K. for up to five years before applying for permanent residency. They can apply for citizenship a year after gaining permanent residency.
…