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Taipei, Taiwan  — China concluded its week-long annual parliamentary meetings in Beijing Monday, passing amendments that will further consolidate Chinese President Xi Jinping’s power and vowing to adopt several new pieces of legislation that aim to safeguard China’s sovereignty and security interests. 

China’s rubber-stamp parliament passed revisions to the Organic Law of the State Council on Monday, which include clauses stipulating that the council shall uphold the leadership of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and safeguard the centralized leadership of the Communist Party’s Central Committee led by Xi. 

“Under the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping at its core, we must adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as our guide and unswervingly push forward the Chinese-style modernization,” Zhao Leji, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said at the closing ceremony of the week-long meeting.  

The amendments come after the Chinese Communist Party announced an abrupt cancellation of Premier Li Qiang’s annual press conference at the end of the week-long parliamentary meetings.

Some analysts told VOA that the latest amendments and Beijing’s decision to cancel the premier’s press conference, which had been part of the annual parliamentary meeting “Two Sessions” for more than three decades, are part of the Chinese leadership’s effort to redefine the state council’s role. 

“As Xi tries to strengthen his power, the state council has been downgraded to an organization focusing on implementing policies,” Liu Dongshu, an expert on Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong, told VOA by phone. 

He said the development would make the state council less influential in the Communist Party’s decision-making process and serve as a “big step for Xi” to consolidate his power. “In the past, the premier, who is the head of the state council, was seen as another big political figure in China, but now, it will no longer be the case,” Liu said. 

Since most decision-making power is now concentrated in Xi under the newly adjusted political structure, some experts say this could affect the Chinese leadership’s decision-making efficiency. 

[The Communist Party’s] “decision-making could become slower because everything needs to pass through Xi, but I suppose policy implementation might become faster since once an order gets into the hands of someone at the state council, they don’t have to think about it other than how to implement the order,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone. 

As China faces persistent economic headwinds, Liu in Hong Kong said Beijing’s attempt to consolidate Xi’s power may hurt the quality of its policies and be counterproductive to its efforts to boost foreign investors’ confidence in the Chinese economy. 

“I can’t imagine a very robust discussion about policymaking [taking place within the Communist Party since] Xi has such a dominant power,” he told VOA, adding that this development may reduce foreign investors’ confidence in China. “People will feel like China becomes more untransparent,” Liu said. 

Doubling down on national security 

In addition to consolidating Xi’s power by adjusting the role of the state council, China’s rubber-stamp parliament also vowed to adopt several security-related laws in 2024, which follows the trend in recent years. 

China’s top lawmaker Zhao Leji said last Friday that Beijing would enact “an emergency management law and an energy law” while revising “the National Defense Education Law and Cybersecurity Law.”

The announcement comes after Beijing adopted revisions to the Law on Guarding State Secrets last month, which broadened the scope of information deemed as “work secrets.” Last year, China also revised the anti-espionage law, which gives Chinese authorities more power to punish what it views as threats to national security.  

Some academics say the plan to adopt more security-related legislation follows Beijing’s efforts to expand the scope of national security since Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago, and it reflects lawmakers attempts to cope with the rising economic and social challenges. 

“Very soon after Xi became general secretary, he pushed the idea of “overall national security,” [which means that] national security would encompass a full gamut of issues, from politics to social and economic affairs,” Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago, told VOA in a video interview. 

He said the Chinese government has become very “security conscious” due to the economic headwinds and social challenges. “This past year, the Communist Party leadership decided to introduce a society work department into the Party’s Central Committee, [which reflects the government’s] increasing effort to be conscious of the challenges facing China’s society and economy,” Yang added. 

Chong in Singapore said the Chinese government’s plan to double down on national security may have negative consequences for China’s sluggish economy and the looming demographic crisis. “The thing to remember is that securitization is not cost-free,” he told VOA. 

“Someone must pay for it, and right now, it seems that the heavy securitization is putting a drain on the Chinese economy and innovation while discouraging investors,” Chong said, adding that the government’s growing emphasis on national security may also deter Chinese citizens from getting married or having children. 

Since the wide range of challenges facing China will likely persist, Chong said it’s important to observe how the tension between the economy and Beijing’s emphasis on security plays out. 

“Adjustment has to come from one direction or another if he [Xi] wants to achieve some of his plans because there is a risk that he could be stuck in a situation where he doesn’t fully realize either plan,” he told VOA.
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Beijing, China — Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, or ZPMC, said on Sunday its cranes do not pose a cybersecurity threat, after U.S. congressional committees questioned the Chinese state-owned company’s work on cranes bound for the United States.

The House of Representatives’ security panels, scrutinizing ZPMC’s installation of Swiss engineering group ABB’s equipment onto U.S.-bound ship-to-shore cranes, in January invited ABB executives to public hearings to clarify its relationship with ZPMC, which they said raised “significant concerns.”

“ZPMC takes the U.S. concerns seriously and believes that these reports can easily mislead the public without sufficient factual review,” it said in a filing, referring to the probe by the Homeland Security and Strategic Competition committees.

“The cranes provided by ZPMC do not pose a cybersecurity risk to any ports,” it said.

ABB has said it sold its control and electrification equipment to many crane manufacturers, including Chinese companies, which in turn sold cranes directly to U.S. ports.

The U.S. and China, the world’s biggest economies, frequently accuse each other of cyberattacks and industrial espionage. Washington this year said it had disrupted a Chinese cyber-spying operation targeting U.S. infrastructure and was investigating Chinese vehicle imports for national security risks. It previously barred Chinese telecom companies.

ZPMC said the cranes it supplies are used in ports around the world, including the United States, and comply with international standards and applicable laws and regulations.

Listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, ZPMC is one of the largest port machinery manufacturers in the world, owning a fleet of more than 20 transportation vessels, according to its website.

ABB generates 16% of its sales from China, second only to the U.S. market at 24%.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Officials saw the crescent moon Sunday night in Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, marking the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan for many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.

The sacred month, which sees those observing abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset, marks a period of religious reflection, family get-togethers and giving across the Muslim world. Seeing the moon Sunday night means Monday is the first day of the fast.

Saudi state television reported authorities there saw the crescent moon. Soon after, multiple Gulf Arab nations, as well as Iraq and Syria, followed the announcement to confirm they as well would start fasting on Monday. Leaders also shared messages of congratulations that the month had begun.

However, there are some Asia-Pacific countries like Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, that will begin Ramadan on Tuesday after failing to see the crescent moon. Oman, on the easternmost edge of the Arabian Peninsula, similarly announced Ramadan would begin Tuesday. Jordan will also begin Ramadan on Tuesday.

This year’s Ramadan comes as the Middle East remains inflamed by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. That’s raised fears that the conflict may spark unrest far beyond the current borders of the war.

Saudi King Salman specifically pointed to the Israel-Hamas war in remarks released to the public after the Ramadan announcement.

“As it pains us that the month of Ramadan falls this year, in light of the attacks our brothers in Palestine are suffering from, we stress the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities, to stop these brutal crimes, and provide safe humanitarian and relief corridors,” the king said.

Meanwhile, inflation and high prices of food around the world since the pandemic began continues to pinch.

In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom had been urging the public to watch the skies from Sunday night in preparation for the sighting of the crescent moon. Ramadan works on a lunar calendar and moon-sighting methodologies often vary between countries, meaning some nations declare the start of the month earlier or later.

However, many Sunni-dominated nations in the Middle East follow the lead of Saudi Arabia, home to Mecca and its cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray toward five times a day.

In Iran, which views itself as the worldwide leader of Islam’s minority Shiites, authorities typically begin Ramadan a day after Sunnis start. Already, the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced Ramadan will start on Tuesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

During Ramadan, those observing typically break their fast with a date and water, following the tradition set by the Prophet Muhammad. Then they’ll enjoy an “iftar,” or a large meal. They’ll have a pre-dawn meal, or “suhoor,” to sustain themselves during the daylight hours.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar; the month cycles through the seasons and the months in the Gregorian calendar.

Muslims try to avoid conflict and focus on acts of charity during the holy month. However, the war in the Gaza Strip is looming large over this year’s Ramadan for many Muslims.

The war began on Oct. 7 with Hamas’ attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel responded with a grinding war targeting the Gaza Strip that so far has seen more than 30,000 Palestinians killed and an intense siege of the seaside enclave cutting off electricity, food and water.

Scenes of Palestinians praying before bombed-out mosques and chasing after food airdropped by foreign nations continue to anger those across the Middle East and the wider world. The U.S. has been pressuring Israel, which relies on American military hardware and support, to allow more food in as Ramadan begins. It also plans a sea corridor with other partners.

The war, as well as Israeli restrictions on Muslims praying at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, may further inflame militant anger. The site is also known as the Temple Mount, which Jews consider their most sacred site.

The Islamic State group, which once held a self-described caliphate across territory in Iraq and Syria, has launched attacks around Ramadan as well. Though now splintered, the group has tried to capitalize on the Israel-Hamas war to raise its profile.

War also continues to rage across Sudan despite efforts to try and reach a Ramadan cease-fire.
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New York — Six years ago, Nachiket Chanchani visited Angkor Wat for the first time. Inspired, the architectural historian began thinking about the relationship between the complexities of modern post-genocide Cambodia and the ancient temple complex.

Chanchani, an associate art history professor at the University of Michigan, kept reflecting on Angkor Wat, juxtaposing the temple complex against art created since the Khmer Rouge killed nearly 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.

During the pandemic, his thoughts crystallized amid worldwide suffering, anxiety and fear. “I thought that this art, both from the deep past and from more recent times in Cambodia, can teach us lessons of how to kind of stay stable, find some way forward,” he told VOA Khmer Service via Zoom.

The University of Michigan Museum of Art, or UMMA, one of the largest university museums in the United States, is now exhibiting 80 pieces of Cambodian art in a show guest curated by Chanchani in Ann Arbor. Titled “Angkor Complex: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia,” it opened February 3 and runs through July 28. Featured artists Vann Nath, Sopheap Pich, Svay Sareth, Amy Lee Sanford and Leang Seckon, who live in Cambodia and the U.S., have pieces in the exhibit.

The Angkor Archaeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, covers more than 400 square kilometers (155 square miles). Once a city of nearly a million people, the site contains some of Cambodia’s most famous structures, including those recognized worldwide after being seen in movies such as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and In the Mood for Love.”

Playing with the dictionary meanings of “complex” such as “a whole made up of complicated or interrelated parts,” “a building or group of buildings housing related units” or “a group of repressed desires and memories that exerts a dominating influence upon the personality,” Chanchani saw how the exhibit could “allow us to think about these different layers, these different kinds of ideas of complexness.”

Today, “Cambodians regard Angkor Wat as a sacred center, a national symbol, and a site of memory,” according to the exhibition guide.

“Like Angkor Wat’s bullet-ridden walls, contemporary artworks from Cambodia and its diaspora bear the scars of a genocide and of related upheavals,” said Chanchani, adding that as a non-Cambodian outsider, he was aware of the exhibition’s sensitive nature. “It’s not as if this is something that happened a thousand years ago that you can just say, it happened,” he said. “The survivors are still there.”

Chanchani hoped bringing Cambodian art to the U.S. would console viewers.

But what could the U.S., one of the biggest economic and military powers learn from Cambodia, a small southeast Asian country, other than how to move on from painful memories and what the exhibition catalog describes as the current interwoven global crises of “public health, economic instability, authoritarian regimes, racial injustice and climate change?”

And how does one nation heal from an event like the Khmer Rouge killing nearly a quarter of the population in its quest to create an agrarian utopia for worker-peasants?

For some Cambodians, it can seem as if, 40 years later, the nation can barely move on or show off a new face when it is still being referred to in the context of the past suffering, especially on the international stage.

Reaksmey Yean, a Cambodian art writer, curator and researcher in Phnom Penh, applauded the Michigan show, but added it is a “cliche” because Angkor Wat and the Khmer Rouge have been overused to identify Cambodia.

“An exhibition about Cambodia, its history and culture is rare in the U.S., so I think it is important to have the exhibition to put Cambodia on the map,” Reaksmey Yean told VOA Khmer Service. “However, it is a cliche for me because it’s been more than 20 years when our civil war completely ended and there are so much in our cultures that can be shown.”

Museum Director Christina Olsen said the audience will have a chance to learn about the “distinct cultural and political [significance] of Cambodia” through the historical and contemporary arts by Cambodian and diasporic artists.

“At the same time, the exhibition invites consideration of today’s broader cultural, social and political happenings and fosters dialogue about the lessons that can be taken from the pain and resilience of the Cambodian people,” she added in the press release.

Svay Sareth is a Cambodian artist whose works in sculpture, installation and durational performance “are made using materials and processes intentionally associated with war — metals, uniforms, camouflage and actions requiring great endurance,” according to the Richard Koh Gallery in Singapore. Sareth’s interest in how Cambodia was affected by war and how its people are moving on has informed his art.

“I want the audience in the U.S. [to] see how the post genocide in Cambodia affect the intergeneration,” Sareth said.

Another work, “Full Circle,” by Khmer American artist Amy Lee Sanford, is comprised of 40 broken clay pots, repaired and installed in a circle. She is known for her “Break Pot” performance pieces where she would drop the clay pot from a height, then glue all the pieces back together, an effort to show how situations can change in seconds and even when repaired, can never be the same again.

Sanford said she hopes the Michigan exhibition will show that Cambodians “have a memory of some of the important architectural and religious structures … and that also that there are contemporary artists now doing things related to history and related to looking forward as well.”
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Paris — The makers of “Game of Thrones” return with “3 Body Problem,” the adaptation of an iconic Chinese sci-fi trilogy.  

It premieres this weekend at the South by Southwest Festival in Texas before launching on Netflix on March 21. 

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, coming off their huge hit with “Game of Thrones,” have liberally translated from the books by Liu Cixin, which has already been adapted for Chinese TV.  

The trilogy of books, which began with “The Three-Body Problem” in 2008, jumps between countries, eras and protagonists as Earth confronts an existential threat. It is considered a sci-fi landmark.  

“Making ‘Game of Thrones’ was the greatest experience of our lives, but we spent 10 solid years living in that fictional world, so we wanted something that presented a new set of challenges on every level,” Weiss said. 

“It’s the story of an impending threat, but it’s tethered by and centered around this core group of characters,” said Benioff. 

The cast includes three of the main actors from “Game of Thrones”: John Bradley as an Oxford scientist, Liam Cunningham as the head of an intelligence agency and Jonathan Pryce as an oil tycoon.  

The showrunners also brought back key members of the effects and production crew — as well as composer Ramin Djawadi — to try to achieve the same grandiose and polished style.   

It was shot to a speedy nine-month schedule across England, Spain, the United Nations headquarters in New York and Cape Canaveral in Florida.  

“Between climate change and the pandemic, we’ve gotten a glimpse into how people in the world react differently to a global threat,” said Weiss. “We see a similar spectrum of reactions in ‘3 Body Problem,’ which resonates with so many of us now.” 
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PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — More than a year after Cambodia’s government crackdown on cyber-slavery scams, anti-human-trafficking groups say scams are still operating at scale, casting doubt on the official narrative that Cambodia has significantly addressed its human trafficking problem.

Cambodia has received widespread attention for its human trafficking epidemic, in which workers are forced to ensnare overseas victims in online fraud schemes. In September 2022, the government raided scam compounds, netting thousands of arrests and deportations.

Since then, Cambodian authorities say they have cut down on human trafficking, disputing a U.N. report that estimated there had been 100,000 victims in Cambodia and accusing news outlets of “baseless” reporting.

International attention, meanwhile, shifted to growing cyber-slavery in northern Myanmar and along the Myanmar-Thai border.

But victim advocate groups say that rather than shutting down, some operations temporarily relocated during the crackdown before reopening in Cambodia. NGOs say identifying and rescuing victims has become more challenging as the government publicly denies the size of the industry.

“From our observation, online scamming has not decreased,” Tola Moeun, executive director of the Phnom Penh-based Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, told VOA. “We don’t know why there has been no clear action, and we continue to see this happening.”

Another international observer working on the issue, who asked for anonymity to maintain relations with the government, told VOA, “It is clear that the volume of trafficking into Cambodia for forced scamming is back to pre-September 2022 levels and maybe exceeding that.”

Companies relocated

As police descended upon the notorious trafficking hotspot of Sihanoukville in September 2022, buildings across the city emptied out.

“Michael,” 38, a Taiwanese trafficking victim who was inside Sihanoukville’s alleged Huang Le compound, using a pseudonym to talk with VOA by phone from Indonesia, recalled companies scrambling to transfer operations.

“Many companies just relocated at that time,” Michael said. “Our company also decided to move.”

While some operators went to Myanmar, others remained in Cambodia. Michael was taken to a compound in the town of O’Smach, near the Thai border.

Other Sihanoukville companies operated with skeleton crews, according to the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), which helps release trafficking victims across Southeast Asia.

“Some buildings in Sihanoukville look like empty buildings … but there are indeed human trafficking victims inside,” said Alicia, a GASO worker who asked to use only her first name to be able to speak freely. “I can’t say that all of them relocated or stopped completely. … Some were still running online scams behind closed doors.”

For the next six months, Michael bounced among three more Cambodian compounds. By June 2023, he was sold to Jinshui, a well-known alleged scam center in Sihanoukville’s Chinatown area. He began training to impersonate an Amazon affiliate to try to persuade people to invest money.

Already, several Jinshui buildings were occupied with trafficked workers from China, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, Michael said, while other Chinatown buildings were also filling up.

“One building could accommodate [up to] 800 people,” he said. “There were at least 400 to 500 people in our company.”

Return to Sihanoukville

Chinatown’s repopulation is part of a broader return of scamming to Sihanoukville, observers say.

Jacob Sims, senior technical adviser at anti-trafficking organization International Justice Mission, told VOA a Chinese crackdown on Myanmar compounds and  the Operation 1027 offensive against Myanmar’s junta have caused a resurgence of scams along the Myanmar-Thai border, in Laos’ Golden Triangle, and Cambodia.

“Reports from numerous sources on the ground in Sihanoukville confirm that the industry there is surging,” Sims said. “There are real regional drivers for why that trend makes sense. This is a multibillion-dollar industry that has now been effectively displaced from northern Myanmar.”

Sihanoukville residents told VOA they have seen a fresh wave of foreigners arriving at compounds straight from the airport. Some previously quiet buildings are now heavily guarded with people living inside.

A compound called “Jincai” appeared abandoned after authorities found evidence of trafficking there in 2022. Since last August, buses have dropped hundreds of foreigners at the property, residents said.

One business owner said her nephew had briefly worked there but quit because “you have to be good at online frauding.”

A local policeman told VOA the buildings were filled with Malaysian and Chinese workers, but he did not know what activities occurred inside. The compound is now known as New Golden Wealth Casino Co., which was reissued a casino license in December 2022.

“We don’t know if it’s new people or the old people who run it,” the policeman said.

Chou Bun Eng, Interior Ministry secretary of state and permanent vice chairwoman of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking, would not speak about specific compounds and told VOA that prior investigations did not prevent companies from restarting business activities.

“To allow reopening means that they’re among the investigating locations where they could not find anything,” Bun Eng said. “It’s normal for businesses to continue their work in the case that they do not commit crimes.”

NGOs cut out

Even as scamming continues, civil society groups are struggling to help victims.

In several cases, traffickers recorded videos showing “freed” victims outside the compound but brought them back inside after sending the videos to police, GASO’s Alicia said. Other victims have been released without help from authorities to travel to Phnom Penh and start the immigration process. 

“I don’t know if it’s because the Cambodian government is not placing as much importance on this issue anymore or what, but I think this way of operating is not appropriate,” Alicia told VOA. “It gives scam companies an opportunity to deceive … and can lead to a higher chance of the victim being beaten or hurt.”

Cambodia’s Interior Ministry set up a hotline for scam victims, which has made the rescue process more opaque, multiple insiders said.

Tola, of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, said authorities “cut off the role of the NGOs for help.”

“It is very difficult for civil society, and all the work we do must be very cautious,” Tola said. “With some of the more controversial cases, we do not dare to say that we help them.”

Still, officials tout low official case numbers as evidence the problem has abated. Bun Eng said authorities confirmed fewer than 300 cases of “confinement” since September 2022.

“There is no such mysterious place. We have searched all over the place when there is a complaint, but in the end, there is no huge number,” Bun Eng said.

Cindy Dyer, U.S. ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, told a local publication that Cambodian officials “disputed the scale” in recent meetings and are “just not getting at the bigger problem.”

“There’s no way we could see the scale of operation in Cambodia without there being both low-level and high-level complicity,” Dyer said. “High-level government officials may be in the front. … The low-level enforcement officers know who owns these things.”

Michael, the scamming victim, escaped in July. As his bosses prepared to transfer operations to Myanmar, he contacted the Taiwanese Embassy and GASO, which helped him get away from a van traveling to the border.

Throughout his year in Cambodian compounds, Michael was beaten, isolated in the dark and shocked with an electric baton, he told VOA. He had been recruited on Facebook for a restaurant gig.

“My darkest experiences were in Cambodia,” Michael said. “Even if you beat me to death, I will never go to Cambodia again.” 
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GUWAHATI, India — India on Friday began deporting the first group of Myanmar refugees who sought shelter there after a military coup in 2021 and plans to send back more in the coming days, weeks after saying it would end a visa-free border policy with Myanmar.

Thousands of civilians and hundreds of troops from Myanmar have fled to Indian states, where communities between the two countries share ethnic and familial ties, which has worried New Delhi because of the risk of communal tensions spreading to India.

“First batch of Myanmar nationals who entered India illegally deported today,” N. Biren Singh, the chief minister of northeastern Manipur state, which borders Myanmar, said in a post on the X social media platform.

Manipur planned to send back at least 77 refugees starting from Friday, according to a state government document seen by Reuters. The state has been roiled by sporadic violence that has killed nearly 200 people so far since ethnic clashes broke out in May last year.

The first group of refugees arrived in the Indian border town of Moreh and would likely be handed over on Saturday, an Indian security official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Singh shared a video clip on X showing women being brought out of security vans and taken into an airport.

New Delhi has not signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, which spells out refugees’ rights and states’ responsibilities to protect them, nor does it have its own laws protecting refugees.

Singh wrote in his post that the country gave “shelter & aid to those fleeing the crisis in Myanmar on humanitarian grounds with a systematic approach.”

India last month said it would end a decades-old visa-free movement policy with Myanmar for their border citizens for reasons including national security, days after the interior minister announced fencing of the 1,643-kilometer border with Myanmar.  
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HONG KONG — Hong Kong on Friday published its new national security draft law, a document that broadens the definition of crimes including sabotage, sedition and state secrets, and stipulates tougher penalties of up to life imprisonment.

The bill comes on top of a 2020 security law imposed by China a year after pro-democracy protests.

Lawmakers are expected to pass the draft bill within weeks, and the law could have implications for many sectors in the global financial hub including business, academia, law, diplomacy and the media, observers say.

The new offences span a number of areas ranging from grave acts affecting sovereignty including insurrection – or initiating armed conflict against a Chinese armed force – to everyday offences including possession of publications deemed seditious. Authorities say the law will apply beyond Hong Kong.

KEY OFFENCES AND SENTENCES

SEDITION

Rights advocates and lawyers say this category can be applied very broadly, and any one possessing any publication deemed seditious, such as a book or an article, can be accused of this offence.

*The offence carries jail terms of up to 7 years for any seditious act, word or publication with the intention of bringing hatred, contempt or disaffection against China or Hong Kong governments.

*If such acts are carried out in collusion with an “external force”, which could include foreign governments, a foreign political party, an international organisation or a company linked to a foreign government, the penalty rises to 10 years.

*The offence also carries a 3 year jail term for possession of a publication with seditious intention, although the bill does not give specific examples of what such material might be.

*Law enforcement officers may enter any premises, including with reasonable force, to remove or destroy seditious publications.

*The law also potentially lowers the threshold for sedition convictions, no longer requiring prosecutors to prove the intention to incite public disorder or violence.

*Calls by some media advocacy and rights groups to remove sedition were ignored by authorities.

STATE SECRETS

*At least 3 years jail for unlawful possession of a state secret which would likely harm national security if released, defined broadly to include secrets spanning defence, foreign affairs, economic development or scientific technology.

*Jail terms of 5 years for unlawful acquisition of such secrets, and 7 years for those leaving Hong Kong with such state secrets.

*While the government introduced a limited public interest defence for state secrets, some lawyers say the law gives authorities and the courts much discretion on the matter.

EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE

*Jail terms of 14 years for collaborating with an external force to bring about interference over areas including government policy, the legislature, courts or elections.

ESPIONAGE

*Jail terms of 20 years for acts including entering prohibited places, and intercepting information or documents of use to an external force.

TREASON

*Maximum life imprisonment for various acts including joining an external armed force at war with China, or use of force to endanger Chinese unity. Jail terms of 5 years for a person who takes part in military or armed “drilling” with an external force without official permission. Lawyers say this could include those who have received military training with a foreign government.

INSURRECTION

*A maximum penalty of life imprisonment for crimes including joining an armed force in conflict with China, or an act that endangers the unity of China.

MUTINY

*A maximum term of life imprisonment for inciting a member of a Chinese armed force to abandon allegiance to China, or to organise or initiate a mutiny.

SABOTAGE

*Up to life imprisonment for any person who colludes with an external force to damage or weaken public infrastructure.

HOW WILL THE LAW AFFECT DEFENDANTS’ RIGHTS?

Right advocates say the new law will further undermine the legal protections for defendants charged with national security offences.

The right to a lawyer, the presumption of innocence and right to bail had long been strong features of Hong Kong’s Common Law traditions. Under a 2020 China-imposed national security law, many pro-democracy politicians and activists have been denied bail under stricter rules.

Under the new law, authorities are expected to go further.

“The most drastic changes of the legislative bill would be issues related to due process and fair trials,” said Eric Lai, a fellow with the Center for Asian Law at Georgetown University in the United States.

“It seems the government almost ignores all of the recommendations from the opposing views during the consultation period. The vague and broad terms of offences and definitions remain in the bill,” he said.

The detention period of suspects will be expanded from a maximum 48 hours now, to an additional 14 days with the approval of a magistrate. Access to a lawyer could also be denied in view of circumstances endangering national security by the magistrate, who may issue a warrant authorising a senior police officer to restrict the person’s consultation with a lawyer. A defendant’s movements could also be restricted.

“It is a broad application of very extreme restrictions on the legal rights of an arrestee in Hong Kong,” Lai added.
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washington — The United States is looking to Korean and Japanese shipbuilders to help revive its dormant naval shipyards and boost maritime competitiveness in the face of China’s accelerated naval buildup.

U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro toured shipyards in South Korea operated by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan and Hanwha Ocean on Geoje Island last week.

He encouraged top executives of the companies to establish subsidiaries and “invest” resources in integrating commercial and naval shipbuilding facilities in the U.S., said a statement by the Navy.

During a speech at Harvard University in September, Del Toro called for “new maritime statecraft” to prevail in an era of intense strategic competition.

South Korean shipbuilding is “an asset” to the U.S. “as China continues to aggressively pursue worldwide shipbuilding dominance,” said the Navy statement issued during Del Toro’s East Asia visit.

“In addition to our currently active shipyards,” it added, “there are numerous former shipyard sites around the country which are largely intact and dormant.”

Del Toro said during the tour that these are ready to be redeveloped to produce military and commercial ships.

Yokohama shipyard

Following his visit to South Korea last week, Del Toro traveled to Japan, where he toured Mitsubishi’s shipyard in Yokohama and discussed efforts to revive the U.S. maritime industry with leading shipbuilding executives, said the Navy in a separate statement.

Matthew Funaiole, senior fellow for the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said these meetings “underscore a strategic effort by the U.S. to bolster alliance and enhance technological and industrial cooperation” with its allies.

“China may be the world’s largest shipbuilder, but South Korea and Japan are number two and three, respectively,” continued Funaiole via email on Tuesday.

China has the largest number of naval vessels in the world, having overtaken the U.S. Navy in 2014. According to a Pentagon report published in October, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) of China has more than 370 battle force ships compared with the U.S. Navy’s 292.

The Pentagon report also said that China’s navy is expected to have 395 ships by 2025 and 435 by 2030.

According to the U.S. Naval Institute, China commands almost 50% of the global shipbuilding market, with South Korea and Japan following at nearly 30% and 17%, respectively. US capacity is only 0.13 percent.

“It is clear that the United States is having trouble producing ships – both surface ships and submarines – at numbers and costs that can keep up with China’s naval modernization,” said Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Defense Department official during the George W. Bush administration.

“One way to address this shortfall is to work more closely with allies and partners to try and field more vessels or to offload some of the maintenance responsibilities to other players,” he told VOA via email on Wednesday.

Protection against competition

But, Cooper said, the opportunities for collaboration “have to be balanced” against the opposition by U.S. shipbuilders that are protected from foreign competitors by the Jones Act.

That act, passed in 1920 in response to German U-boat attacks during World War I that crippled the U.S. Merchant Marine, requires that any vessel carrying goods between two U.S. points be built, owned and crewed by Americans and registered in the U.S.

Terence Roehrig, a professor of national security at the Naval War College, said the U.S. faces a lack of “shipbuilding capacity that can crank out the needed number of vessels at a cost that can be sustained.”

He continued via email on Tuesday: “It will be difficult for the U.S. to match the size of the PLAN but the United States retains advantages in technology and weapons systems along with certain classes of ships including aircraft carriers and submarines.”

Roehrig added that South Korean and Japanese investment could help the U.S. increase its capacity to keep up with China.

The U.S. Navy currently operates public shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia; Portsmouth, Maine; Puget Sound, Washington; and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Seven public shipyards closed from the 1960s to 1990s.

Seven shipyards owned by four contractors in the U.S. build warships for the Navy while China operates more than 20 shipyards to support naval shipbuilding, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

Funaiole said: “The gap in shipbuilding capabilities can be attributed to several factors, including China’s focused efforts on accelerating military modernization through dual-use applications, strategic prioritization of naval expansion to assert its maritime interests, and effective utilization of its commercial industrial capacity.”

He continued that the U.S. should warn its international partners about engaging with Chinese commercial shipbuilders.

“These entities often bolster China’s military through its Military-Civil Fusion strategy,” which aims to eliminate barriers among commercial, scientific and military sectors to enhance its defense.
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Taipei, Taiwan — Family members say they are still seeking answers more than two months after China’s detention on spying charges of a Chinese citizen who had tried to help an American company find office space in the country.

Emily Chen, 50, was supposed to meet her husband, U.S. citizen Mark Lent, at Nanjing airport on December 29. She texted Lent that her plane had landed but never emerged from the airport, prompting Lent to initiate a frantic inquiry about her whereabouts.

“Her flight was supposed to land at 10:30 p.m. on December 29, but she still hadn’t shown up by midnight,” Lent told VOA by phone. “I contacted the airport police, and 20 minutes later, they told me that Emily had been taken away by state security officers.”

Four days after her detention, Chen’s son, who is also a Chinese national, received a notification from the Dalian state security bureau stating that Chen had been arrested on December 30 for illegally providing state secrets to overseas parties, a charge that could carry a sentence of 10 years or more.

“I know my wife and [spying on China] is not the kind of thing that she would do to her country,” Lent said. “She really cares about her country, and I seriously doubt the charges against her.”

Worried that Chen’s arrest may increase the stress on her son, who is in his early 20s and has mental health issues, Lent tried to take his stepson to Doha, Qatar, with him on February 9. However, when they were going through customs at the Shanghai airport, his stepson was banned from leaving China.

Lent told VOA that his stepson’s relationship with his father in China is strained and that he is still in Nanjing on his own.

Worked for US logistics company

Authorities in Dalian have not spoken publicly about Chen’s case, including her exact whereabouts. It is believed that Chen is being held under what is called residential surveillance at a designated location, or RSDL. The Dalian state security bureau hung up the phone when VOA tried to inquire about Chen’s case.

While there is no clear explanation for the spying charges against Chen, Lent believes her detention may be related to the work she did for an American logistics company in Dalian in 2023.

According to Lent, Chen spent four months working on behalf of Safe Ports, a company that describes itself as a global leader in supply chain management. “She was supposed to find them an office space,” he told VOA.

Safe Ports has previously done work for the U.S. Department of Defense, including supplying American troops in Afghanistan. While there is no confirmation that Chen’s detention is directly related to her work for Safe Ports, the company’s prior association with the U.S. Department of Defense and the sensitive nature of Dalian, which hosts a Chinese naval base, may have resulted in her arrest, some observers say.

Dalian is also where China constructed its first domestically built aircraft carrier, the Shandong.

“Either what the company was doing, which they didn’t share, involves some potential espionage-related activities or her arrest is just a terrible overreach by the Chinese government that has gone out of proportion,” Peter Dahlin, the director of Madrid-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, told VOA by phone.

Neither Safe Ports nor the company’s CEO, Lucy Duncan, responded to multiple interview requests from VOA. However Duncan was quoted by The Guardian newspaper, saying that Chen’s work for Safe Ports was “purely administrative” and that she had no idea why Chen was detained.

Dahlin — who was himself previously held under RSDL — said the fact that Chen was arrested upon returning to China indicates that Chinese authorities “have been tracking” Chen’s activities “for a while.”

Since RSDL is typically used against individuals viewed as a threat to national security in China, Lent said until recently the family had received little information about Chen’s condition for weeks.

Over the past week, her family says, they have received several updates about Chen’s situation in detention, including a letter in which Chen said she “was fine” and a call from state security officers handling her case. According to Lent, the officer told Chen’s son that the investigation was ongoing.

“When [my stepson] talked to them, he seemed to think they were honest and that Emily was given everything she needed,” Lent told VOA, adding that the updates have made him feel more positive about Chen’s situation in detention.

Stepped-up security efforts

Chen’s detention comes as China doubles down on efforts to safeguard national security, passing amendments to laws such as the anti-espionage law and state secrets law and initiating raids against some foreign businesses, including some American due diligence firms.

In a recent interview, the U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns told “60 Minutes” that over the past year Chinese authorities raided at least seven American companies and arrested employees on suspicion of espionage.

Some analysts say Chen’s case is part of Beijing’s campaign to further securitize the country, efforts that ultimately will further reduce foreign businesses’ confidence in China.

“It’s becoming riskier for Chinese citizens to work for foreign companies because the Chinese government under Xi Jinping continues to securitize the country and initiate national-security related investigations against foreign companies,” Yaqiu Wang, research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House, told VOA by phone.

In response to an inquiry about Chen’s case, the Chinese Embassy in Washington told VOA that it was unaware of the specifics of her detention but that China protects the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals “in accordance with the law.”

“China is actively advancing its high-level opening-up and making efforts to provide a world-class, market-oriented business environment governed by a sound legal framework,” Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson, wrote in response.

While the recent updates have eased some of Lent’s concerns about Chen’s conditions in detention, he said the case has caused serious financial and emotional damage to the family.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t break down over this because I love her very much,” he told VOA. “[While] I have so much confidence that she will eventually prevail on this, I still think it’s going to be a tough road ahead for her.”
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Thursday criticized the United States for trying to suppress China’s rise through sanctions and reiterated Beijing’s commitment to uphold the multipolar world order with partners such as Russia.

Speaking to local and foreign media during the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, Wang said while relations between China and the United States have improved since the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, Washington’s misconception of China remains strong and it has not honored the promises made during the summit.

“The U.S. continues to renew their means of suppressing China while expanding the sanctions list,” he said, adding that Washington’s desire to punish Beijing has reached an “unimaginable level.”

Questioning Washington’s credibility as a great power, Wang urged the U.S. to view China’s rise and development objectively and rationally handle its interactions with Beijing.

“We urge the U.S. to recognize the general trend of historical development and put its promises into practice,” Wang added.

Some analysts say Wang’s criticism of the U.S. reflects Beijing’s concern about facing technological bottlenecks and economic encirclement by Washington and its allies.

“Beijing is hoping to elicit further American concessions and it’s asking the U.S. to lower its walls on technological de-risking from China,” Wen-ti Sung, a political scientist at Australian National University told VOA in a written response.

While Wang urged the U.S. to promote a healthy and stable development of bilateral relations alongside China, he touted Beijing’s close partnership with Russia, saying both countries continue to deepen political mutual trust while pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation.

“As major world powers and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China, and Russia have forged a new paradigm of great power relations that adheres to permanent good neighborliness while deepening comprehensive strategic cooperation on the basis of nonalignment, nonconfrontation and nontargeting of third parties,” Wang said.

Some experts say China’s efforts to double down on its “no limits partnership” with Russia is mainly due to its attempt to build an alliance that can resist pressure imposed by the United States.

“Since Russia is anti-U.S., China needs an ally to help it resist pressure from Washington,” Liu Dongshu, an expert on Chinese politics at the City University of Hong Kong, told VOA by phone.

Since China has been highlighting the importance of its partnership with Russia before the Ukraine war, Liu said China may feel the need to stick with that commitment.

“It’s difficult for Beijing to admit that it’s made a mistake in being too supportive of Russia, so for the sake of saving its face, China needs to insist that it’s not wrong for maintaining the partnership with Russia,” he added.

As the war in Ukraine and the Middle East continue, Wang, a 70-year-old veteran diplomat who returned to the role of foreign minister last year following the mysterious dismissal of former Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, said China is actively putting forward proposals for resolving regional and global issues.

He said the only way to end the vicious cycle extended from the conflict between Israel and Hamas is to “comprehensively implement the two-state solution” and said Beijing supports establishment of a Palestinian U.N. member state.

On the Ukraine war, Wang said China has always “maintained an objective and impartial position” and reiterated Beijing’s support for convening an international peace conference that is recognized by both Russia and Ukraine.

Liu in Hong Kong said China is facing a dilemma where it wants to present itself as a responsible great power internationally, but it doesn’t want to take action to address the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“Unlike the U.S., which has experience in mediating global conflicts, China has long adopted this nonintervention approach,” he told VOA. “China is unwilling to take actions to get involved in these conflicts and it also may not be capable of doing that.”

Amid rising tension across the Taiwan Strait in recent weeks, with Chinese coast guard vessels increasing efforts to patrol disputed waters near Taiwan’s outlying islands, Wang said Beijing will never allow Taiwan to be separated “from the motherland” and warned countries around the world not to support Taiwan’s potential pursuit of independence.

“Whoever engages in ‘Taiwan independence’ on the island will be held accountable by history and whoever in the world supports ‘Taiwan independence’ will get burned for playing with fire and taste the bitter fruit of their own doing,” he warned during the 90-minute press conference.

Sung from Australian National University said Wang’s comments on Taiwan are intended to intensify pressure on Taiwan’s diplomatic partners and ensure Taiwan remains internationally isolated. Wang is trying to “warn other countries about the consequences of offering support for Taiwan while reiterating Beijing’s ultimate goal of achieving unification,” he told VOA.

As tension between China and the Philippines grows because of repeated confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, Wang said China has always exercised “a high degree of restraint” when handling maritime disputes.

“China has always respected historical and legal facts and sought a solution that’s acceptable to each party,” he said, adding that Beijing will not allow its “good intentions” to be abused or the law in the sea to be “distorted.”

After Wang set the tone for China’s foreign policy in 2024 through the press conference on Thursday, some analysts think Beijing will likely adopt a multiprong approach to manage its relationship with different countries.

“China will focus on managing ties with Europe, maintaining close relations with Russia and other pariah states, heightening tensions with Taiwan, India and in the South China Sea, cautiously testing the waters with the U.S. while seeking to court the Global South,” Sana Hashmi, a postdoctoral a fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, told VOA in a written response.
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