cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60817627

Exiled former Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay said any successor to the Dalai Lama appointed by China "is going to be a fake one". He also likened Beijing's ethnic unity law to "an ethnic erasure", said Tibetan concerns had been "downgraded a bit" in US-China talks and accused China of failing to warn of the deadly August floods on the Nepal-Tibet border.

Speaking to FRANCE 24, Lobsang Sangay, who headed the Tibetan government-in-exile from 2011 to 2021, rejected Beijing's claim to choose the 91-year-old Dalai Lama's successor. "The one selected by his office and by our monks will be the real one," he said, rather than "the one appointed by China, which is going to be a fake one".

Beijing's law on "promoting ethnic unity and progress", which came into force on July 1, is "like an ethnic erasure or assimilation", Sangay said, warning that it "can extend beyond China's border".

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60817238

Archived

A China-aligned operator used Claude, Anthropic’s generative AI assistant, to track Uyghurs living in Syria and recruit potential informants within the community. The model translated messages, facilitated communication in local dialects, and geolocated people, zeroing in on particularly vulnerable individuals who face financial hardship or separation from family members still in Xinjiang, the autonomous region in northwest China that is home to the majority of the Uyghur population. Claude helped the operators turn scattered digital traces into targeted intelligence, amplifying the reach of China’s surveillance of a persecuted ethnic minority.

The case is one of several examples of AI-enabled digital transnational repression detailed in a recent report by Anthropic’s Threat Intelligence team, published on Sept. 10, 2026. The report gives direct evidence that generative AI is being incorporated into the machinery of cross-border repression, enabling authoritarian governments and their proxies to build scalable workflows for identifying, monitoring, and targeting diaspora activists and exiled dissidents around the world.

[...]

Because these operations target people across jurisdictions and can enable offline coercion, AI companies should treat transnational repression as a distinct threat category, separate from domestic surveillance and influence operations. Frontier AI companies—those building highly capable, general-purpose AI models—should follow Anthropic’s lead and publish detailed reports that specifically track incidents of digital transnational repression. They should also establish protocols for detecting digital transnational repression, publicly notifying affected communities, and preserving evidence captured in the course of their threat investigations. Taking these steps would help curb the misuse of American technology by repressive governments reaching across borders and improve protections for the already vulnerable groups they are threatening.

[...]

First, Anthropic’s report demonstrates how AI lowers operational costs, making repression more accessible. Operations of digital repression have usually depended on language skills, trained intelligence analysts, and software engineers. The cases in the report suggest that AI can substitute for parts of this expertise. In the campaign against Uyghurs in Syria, operators used Claude to profile targets according to their vulnerabilities and craft a recruitment script in Syrian dialect, despite not speaking Arabic themselves. In the case of three state-backed Iranian influence operations, the actors relied on the model to develop complex campaign plans, operation manuals, and persona systems, working in several languages to promote regime narratives and target, among others, the persecuted Baha’i religious minority and Iranian opposition figures at home and abroad.

[...]

Second, AI models are being used to convert digital traces into detailed information that can be used to track specific targets. Diaspora communities generate large amounts of publicly accessible data across social media, messaging platforms, public databases, and organizational websites. AI assistants can take this fragmented data and structure it into detailed intelligence reports. These reports can reconstruct social networks and relations, infer political affiliations, pinpoint locations, and even flag vulnerabilities.

In one case, a commercial intelligence vendor likely working for Arabic-speaking customers in the Gulf region created a platform to analyze the social media activity of diaspora users, mapping their location and categorizing them as pro-government or opposition. Anthropic disrupted this operation before it was deployed.

[...]

Third, Claude is being integrated into standardized workflows that repeatedly collect information about targets across borders. Repressive operators rely on models to build entire surveillance systems and supporting infrastructure, allowing small teams of human operators to oversee recurring, partly automated surveillance reports. In one instance, a Chinese security contractor used Claude to produce daily “public opinion” briefings for government officials that “catalogued dissidents, activists, ethnic minority and Chinese diaspora communities, and foreign media as threats to political stability.” The operator also created a system that enabled the automated review of 15-30 or more foreign media articles per day. The resulting briefings included recommendations for government enforcement action, turning the monitoring of overseas communities into a routine bureaucratic process.

[...]

the report substantiates that AI-enabled surveillance can lead to real-world acts of transnational repression. The technology produces information that can support physical surveillance, coercion, informant recruitment, the deployment of agents, and the disruption of civil society activities. For instance, in the campaign targeting Uyghurs in Syria, the operators used Claude to identify targets’ physical locations and family members that could be used as leverage. Other operations used AI to conduct reconnaissance of the physical spaces where diaspora communities organize. In one China-affiliated operation against religious minorities, Claude helped compile actionable surveillance files, including “floor plans, facades, and structural diagrams” of religious venues. In another, a China-affiliated actor researched a protest route in Vancouver, Uyghur events in Turkey, and the Oslo Freedom Forum. Although the report does not establish that this reconnaissance led to physical attacks, the cases show how AI-assisted analysis can support authorities to monitor, intimidate, and threaten activists beyond their borders.

[...]

Exiled former Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay said any successor to the Dalai Lama appointed by China "is going to be a fake one". He also likened Beijing's ethnic unity law to "an ethnic erasure", said Tibetan concerns had been "downgraded a bit" in US-China talks and accused China of failing to warn of the deadly August floods on the Nepal-Tibet border.

Speaking to FRANCE 24, Lobsang Sangay, who headed the Tibetan government-in-exile from 2011 to 2021, rejected Beijing's claim to choose the 91-year-old Dalai Lama's successor. "The one selected by his office and by our monks will be the real one," he said, rather than "the one appointed by China, which is going to be a fake one".

Beijing's law on "promoting ethnic unity and progress", which came into force on July 1, is "like an ethnic erasure or assimilation", Sangay said, warning that it "can extend beyond China's border".

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60817238

Archived

A China-aligned operator used Claude, Anthropic’s generative AI assistant, to track Uyghurs living in Syria and recruit potential informants within the community. The model translated messages, facilitated communication in local dialects, and geolocated people, zeroing in on particularly vulnerable individuals who face financial hardship or separation from family members still in Xinjiang, the autonomous region in northwest China that is home to the majority of the Uyghur population. Claude helped the operators turn scattered digital traces into targeted intelligence, amplifying the reach of China’s surveillance of a persecuted ethnic minority.

The case is one of several examples of AI-enabled digital transnational repression detailed in a recent report by Anthropic’s Threat Intelligence team, published on Sept. 10, 2026. The report gives direct evidence that generative AI is being incorporated into the machinery of cross-border repression, enabling authoritarian governments and their proxies to build scalable workflows for identifying, monitoring, and targeting diaspora activists and exiled dissidents around the world.

[...]

Because these operations target people across jurisdictions and can enable offline coercion, AI companies should treat transnational repression as a distinct threat category, separate from domestic surveillance and influence operations. Frontier AI companies—those building highly capable, general-purpose AI models—should follow Anthropic’s lead and publish detailed reports that specifically track incidents of digital transnational repression. They should also establish protocols for detecting digital transnational repression, publicly notifying affected communities, and preserving evidence captured in the course of their threat investigations. Taking these steps would help curb the misuse of American technology by repressive governments reaching across borders and improve protections for the already vulnerable groups they are threatening.

[...]

First, Anthropic’s report demonstrates how AI lowers operational costs, making repression more accessible. Operations of digital repression have usually depended on language skills, trained intelligence analysts, and software engineers. The cases in the report suggest that AI can substitute for parts of this expertise. In the campaign against Uyghurs in Syria, operators used Claude to profile targets according to their vulnerabilities and craft a recruitment script in Syrian dialect, despite not speaking Arabic themselves. In the case of three state-backed Iranian influence operations, the actors relied on the model to develop complex campaign plans, operation manuals, and persona systems, working in several languages to promote regime narratives and target, among others, the persecuted Baha’i religious minority and Iranian opposition figures at home and abroad.

[...]

Second, AI models are being used to convert digital traces into detailed information that can be used to track specific targets. Diaspora communities generate large amounts of publicly accessible data across social media, messaging platforms, public databases, and organizational websites. AI assistants can take this fragmented data and structure it into detailed intelligence reports. These reports can reconstruct social networks and relations, infer political affiliations, pinpoint locations, and even flag vulnerabilities.

In one case, a commercial intelligence vendor likely working for Arabic-speaking customers in the Gulf region created a platform to analyze the social media activity of diaspora users, mapping their location and categorizing them as pro-government or opposition. Anthropic disrupted this operation before it was deployed.

[...]

Third, Claude is being integrated into standardized workflows that repeatedly collect information about targets across borders. Repressive operators rely on models to build entire surveillance systems and supporting infrastructure, allowing small teams of human operators to oversee recurring, partly automated surveillance reports. In one instance, a Chinese security contractor used Claude to produce daily “public opinion” briefings for government officials that “catalogued dissidents, activists, ethnic minority and Chinese diaspora communities, and foreign media as threats to political stability.” The operator also created a system that enabled the automated review of 15-30 or more foreign media articles per day. The resulting briefings included recommendations for government enforcement action, turning the monitoring of overseas communities into a routine bureaucratic process.

[...]

the report substantiates that AI-enabled surveillance can lead to real-world acts of transnational repression. The technology produces information that can support physical surveillance, coercion, informant recruitment, the deployment of agents, and the disruption of civil society activities. For instance, in the campaign targeting Uyghurs in Syria, the operators used Claude to identify targets’ physical locations and family members that could be used as leverage. Other operations used AI to conduct reconnaissance of the physical spaces where diaspora communities organize. In one China-affiliated operation against religious minorities, Claude helped compile actionable surveillance files, including “floor plans, facades, and structural diagrams” of religious venues. In another, a China-affiliated actor researched a protest route in Vancouver, Uyghur events in Turkey, and the Oslo Freedom Forum. Although the report does not establish that this reconnaissance led to physical attacks, the cases show how AI-assisted analysis can support authorities to monitor, intimidate, and threaten activists beyond their borders.

[...]

Archived

A China-aligned operator used Claude, Anthropic’s generative AI assistant, to track Uyghurs living in Syria and recruit potential informants within the community. The model translated messages, facilitated communication in local dialects, and geolocated people, zeroing in on particularly vulnerable individuals who face financial hardship or separation from family members still in Xinjiang, the autonomous region in northwest China that is home to the majority of the Uyghur population. Claude helped the operators turn scattered digital traces into targeted intelligence, amplifying the reach of China’s surveillance of a persecuted ethnic minority.

The case is one of several examples of AI-enabled digital transnational repression detailed in a recent report by Anthropic’s Threat Intelligence team, published on Sept. 10, 2026. The report gives direct evidence that generative AI is being incorporated into the machinery of cross-border repression, enabling authoritarian governments and their proxies to build scalable workflows for identifying, monitoring, and targeting diaspora activists and exiled dissidents around the world.

[...]

Because these operations target people across jurisdictions and can enable offline coercion, AI companies should treat transnational repression as a distinct threat category, separate from domestic surveillance and influence operations. Frontier AI companies—those building highly capable, general-purpose AI models—should follow Anthropic’s lead and publish detailed reports that specifically track incidents of digital transnational repression. They should also establish protocols for detecting digital transnational repression, publicly notifying affected communities, and preserving evidence captured in the course of their threat investigations. Taking these steps would help curb the misuse of American technology by repressive governments reaching across borders and improve protections for the already vulnerable groups they are threatening.

[...]

First, Anthropic’s report demonstrates how AI lowers operational costs, making repression more accessible. Operations of digital repression have usually depended on language skills, trained intelligence analysts, and software engineers. The cases in the report suggest that AI can substitute for parts of this expertise. In the campaign against Uyghurs in Syria, operators used Claude to profile targets according to their vulnerabilities and craft a recruitment script in Syrian dialect, despite not speaking Arabic themselves. In the case of three state-backed Iranian influence operations, the actors relied on the model to develop complex campaign plans, operation manuals, and persona systems, working in several languages to promote regime narratives and target, among others, the persecuted Baha’i religious minority and Iranian opposition figures at home and abroad.

[...]

Second, AI models are being used to convert digital traces into detailed information that can be used to track specific targets. Diaspora communities generate large amounts of publicly accessible data across social media, messaging platforms, public databases, and organizational websites. AI assistants can take this fragmented data and structure it into detailed intelligence reports. These reports can reconstruct social networks and relations, infer political affiliations, pinpoint locations, and even flag vulnerabilities.

In one case, a commercial intelligence vendor likely working for Arabic-speaking customers in the Gulf region created a platform to analyze the social media activity of diaspora users, mapping their location and categorizing them as pro-government or opposition. Anthropic disrupted this operation before it was deployed.

[...]

Third, Claude is being integrated into standardized workflows that repeatedly collect information about targets across borders. Repressive operators rely on models to build entire surveillance systems and supporting infrastructure, allowing small teams of human operators to oversee recurring, partly automated surveillance reports. In one instance, a Chinese security contractor used Claude to produce daily “public opinion” briefings for government officials that “catalogued dissidents, activists, ethnic minority and Chinese diaspora communities, and foreign media as threats to political stability.” The operator also created a system that enabled the automated review of 15-30 or more foreign media articles per day. The resulting briefings included recommendations for government enforcement action, turning the monitoring of overseas communities into a routine bureaucratic process.

[...]

the report substantiates that AI-enabled surveillance can lead to real-world acts of transnational repression. The technology produces information that can support physical surveillance, coercion, informant recruitment, the deployment of agents, and the disruption of civil society activities. For instance, in the campaign targeting Uyghurs in Syria, the operators used Claude to identify targets’ physical locations and family members that could be used as leverage. Other operations used AI to conduct reconnaissance of the physical spaces where diaspora communities organize. In one China-affiliated operation against religious minorities, Claude helped compile actionable surveillance files, including “floor plans, facades, and structural diagrams” of religious venues. In another, a China-affiliated actor researched a protest route in Vancouver, Uyghur events in Turkey, and the Oslo Freedom Forum. Although the report does not establish that this reconnaissance led to physical attacks, the cases show how AI-assisted analysis can support authorities to monitor, intimidate, and threaten activists beyond their borders.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60787956

When China rebrands Tibet University to "Xizang" University, it is not just changing a label—it is a deliberate political move to replace the traditional name "Tibet" with the Mandarin term "Xizang" in order to reshape global and local perception, aligning the university's identity with state-approved narratives.

Archived

The Chinese government is actively attempting to erase Tibetan identity, including its language, culture, and religion. To enforce this assimilation policy, authorities ban Tibetan language instruction in classrooms, shut down Tibetan-run schools, and arrest local intellectuals, teachers, and professors. Furthermore, the state is systematically replacing traditional names with Mandarin alternatives—such as forcibly rebranding Lhasa's Tibet University as 'Xizang University'—and removing Tibetan scriptures from public shops, restaurants, and schools.

Simultaneously, the Chinese government is attempting to rewrite Tibetan history by manufacturing false state narratives. Authorities actively penalize and accuse Tibetans of "separatism" when they present the truth in literature and cinema. A prominent recent example is Beijing's heavy state-media condemnation of the groundbreaking independent "film Four Rivers Six Ranges". Directed by Shenpenn Khymsar, the historical drama tells the authentic story of ordinary Tibetans who rose up in 1958 and 1959 to defend their homeland, Tibet and protect His Holiness the Dalai Lama's escape to India—a true narrative that Chinese state media has aggressively accused of "distorting historical reality".

[...]

Beyond removing public scriptures and renaming landmarks, the Chinese government is executing a deep, structural rebranding of Tibet by systematically dismantling the physical and spiritual foundations of its civilization. Under the guise of "Sinicizing religion" and enforcing "ethnic unity," Beijing has deployed heavy machinery to demolish thousands of sacred monastic dwellings and stupas at world-renowned Buddhist institutes like Larung Gar, while mandating that ancient Tibetan sacred texts be forcibly translated into Mandarin. Monks and nuns are subjected to intense political re-education, forced to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party, and prohibited from possessing images of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as the state aggressively asserts its own authority to appoint future spiritual leaders.

The Chinese government forcibly separated nearly one million Tibetan children—accounting for roughly 78% of school-aged youth—from their families and tradition, religion. Inside these highly regulated institutions, children as young as four years old are subjected to a total immersion environment where the Tibetan language is completely banned, traditional customs are restricted, and instruction is conducted exclusively in Mandarin alongside state-mandated political propaganda.

By severing the everyday connection between children and their parents, the state effectively halts the natural intergenerational transmission of Tibetan language, culture, and unique Buddhist spiritual values. This systemic model of forced separation has drawn severe international condemnation from the United Nations and human rights organisations, who warn that the primary objective of these schools is the permanent psychological and cultural re-engineering of the next generation of Tibetans into loyal, fully integrated subjects of the Chinese Communist Party.

Archived

The Philippines is exploring deeper cooperation with Taiwan on protecting undersea cables and addressing "gray zone" activity, despite Manila's “one China” policy, which recognizes Beijing and not ‌Taipei, a Philippine diplomat said yesterday.

The Philippines and Taiwan have repeatedly complained about Chinese activities designed to pressure the countries without direct confrontation. China claims Taiwan as its own and has overlapping claims with Taiwan and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Felipe F. Carino III, Manila's deputy chief of mission in Washington, told a seminar that this "pragmatic and practical approach" with Taiwan was necessary to protect mutual interests in the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines.

[...]

The Philippines and Taiwan were exploring "practical and more pragmatic approaches in cooperation, including knowledge-sharing and capacity building," Carino said. "We see this cooperation leading towards ... addressing the gray zone issues in our part of the world."

[...]

At the same seminar, Deputy Representative to the US Andrea Yang (楊懿珊) referred to the jailing in Taiwan of a Chinese ship captain over damage to an undersea cable.

Taiwan would put more resources into developing uncrewed systems to improve maritime surveillance, she said.

Interference with undersea cables was an issue that should be taken up by the UN, which should consider mechanisms to prevent "bad behavior," Yang said.

When China rebrands Tibet University to "Xizang" University, it is not just changing a label—it is a deliberate political move to replace the traditional name "Tibet" with the Mandarin term "Xizang" in order to reshape global and local perception, aligning the university's identity with state-approved narratives.

Archived

The Chinese government is actively attempting to erase Tibetan identity, including its language, culture, and religion. To enforce this assimilation policy, authorities ban Tibetan language instruction in classrooms, shut down Tibetan-run schools, and arrest local intellectuals, teachers, and professors. Furthermore, the state is systematically replacing traditional names with Mandarin alternatives—such as forcibly rebranding Lhasa's Tibet University as 'Xizang University'—and removing Tibetan scriptures from public shops, restaurants, and schools.

Simultaneously, the Chinese government is attempting to rewrite Tibetan history by manufacturing false state narratives. Authorities actively penalize and accuse Tibetans of "separatism" when they present the truth in literature and cinema. A prominent recent example is Beijing's heavy state-media condemnation of the groundbreaking independent "film Four Rivers Six Ranges". Directed by Shenpenn Khymsar, the historical drama tells the authentic story of ordinary Tibetans who rose up in 1958 and 1959 to defend their homeland, Tibet and protect His Holiness the Dalai Lama's escape to India—a true narrative that Chinese state media has aggressively accused of "distorting historical reality".

[...]

Beyond removing public scriptures and renaming landmarks, the Chinese government is executing a deep, structural rebranding of Tibet by systematically dismantling the physical and spiritual foundations of its civilization. Under the guise of "Sinicizing religion" and enforcing "ethnic unity," Beijing has deployed heavy machinery to demolish thousands of sacred monastic dwellings and stupas at world-renowned Buddhist institutes like Larung Gar, while mandating that ancient Tibetan sacred texts be forcibly translated into Mandarin. Monks and nuns are subjected to intense political re-education, forced to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party, and prohibited from possessing images of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as the state aggressively asserts its own authority to appoint future spiritual leaders.

The Chinese government forcibly separated nearly one million Tibetan children—accounting for roughly 78% of school-aged youth—from their families and tradition, religion. Inside these highly regulated institutions, children as young as four years old are subjected to a total immersion environment where the Tibetan language is completely banned, traditional customs are restricted, and instruction is conducted exclusively in Mandarin alongside state-mandated political propaganda.

By severing the everyday connection between children and their parents, the state effectively halts the natural intergenerational transmission of Tibetan language, culture, and unique Buddhist spiritual values. This systemic model of forced separation has drawn severe international condemnation from the United Nations and human rights organisations, who warn that the primary objective of these schools is the permanent psychological and cultural re-engineering of the next generation of Tibetans into loyal, fully integrated subjects of the Chinese Communist Party.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60788174

Archived

The Philippines is exploring deeper cooperation with Taiwan on protecting undersea cables and addressing "gray zone" activity, despite Manila's “one China” policy, which recognizes Beijing and not ‌Taipei, a Philippine diplomat said yesterday.

The Philippines and Taiwan have repeatedly complained about Chinese activities designed to pressure the countries without direct confrontation. China claims Taiwan as its own and has overlapping claims with Taiwan and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Felipe F. Carino III, Manila's deputy chief of mission in Washington, told a seminar that this "pragmatic and practical approach" with Taiwan was necessary to protect mutual interests in the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines.

[...]

The Philippines and Taiwan were exploring "practical and more pragmatic approaches in cooperation, including knowledge-sharing and capacity building," Carino said. "We see this cooperation leading towards ... addressing the gray zone issues in our part of the world."

[...]

At the same seminar, Deputy Representative to the US Andrea Yang (楊懿珊) referred to the jailing in Taiwan of a Chinese ship captain over damage to an undersea cable.

Taiwan would put more resources into developing uncrewed systems to improve maritime surveillance, she said.

Interference with undersea cables was an issue that should be taken up by the UN, which should consider mechanisms to prevent "bad behavior," Yang said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60787956

When China rebrands Tibet University to "Xizang" University, it is not just changing a label—it is a deliberate political move to replace the traditional name "Tibet" with the Mandarin term "Xizang" in order to reshape global and local perception, aligning the university's identity with state-approved narratives.

Archived

The Chinese government is actively attempting to erase Tibetan identity, including its language, culture, and religion. To enforce this assimilation policy, authorities ban Tibetan language instruction in classrooms, shut down Tibetan-run schools, and arrest local intellectuals, teachers, and professors. Furthermore, the state is systematically replacing traditional names with Mandarin alternatives—such as forcibly rebranding Lhasa's Tibet University as 'Xizang University'—and removing Tibetan scriptures from public shops, restaurants, and schools.

Simultaneously, the Chinese government is attempting to rewrite Tibetan history by manufacturing false state narratives. Authorities actively penalize and accuse Tibetans of "separatism" when they present the truth in literature and cinema. A prominent recent example is Beijing's heavy state-media condemnation of the groundbreaking independent "film Four Rivers Six Ranges". Directed by Shenpenn Khymsar, the historical drama tells the authentic story of ordinary Tibetans who rose up in 1958 and 1959 to defend their homeland, Tibet and protect His Holiness the Dalai Lama's escape to India—a true narrative that Chinese state media has aggressively accused of "distorting historical reality".

[...]

Beyond removing public scriptures and renaming landmarks, the Chinese government is executing a deep, structural rebranding of Tibet by systematically dismantling the physical and spiritual foundations of its civilization. Under the guise of "Sinicizing religion" and enforcing "ethnic unity," Beijing has deployed heavy machinery to demolish thousands of sacred monastic dwellings and stupas at world-renowned Buddhist institutes like Larung Gar, while mandating that ancient Tibetan sacred texts be forcibly translated into Mandarin. Monks and nuns are subjected to intense political re-education, forced to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party, and prohibited from possessing images of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as the state aggressively asserts its own authority to appoint future spiritual leaders.

The Chinese government forcibly separated nearly one million Tibetan children—accounting for roughly 78% of school-aged youth—from their families and tradition, religion. Inside these highly regulated institutions, children as young as four years old are subjected to a total immersion environment where the Tibetan language is completely banned, traditional customs are restricted, and instruction is conducted exclusively in Mandarin alongside state-mandated political propaganda.

By severing the everyday connection between children and their parents, the state effectively halts the natural intergenerational transmission of Tibetan language, culture, and unique Buddhist spiritual values. This systemic model of forced separation has drawn severe international condemnation from the United Nations and human rights organisations, who warn that the primary objective of these schools is the permanent psychological and cultural re-engineering of the next generation of Tibetans into loyal, fully integrated subjects of the Chinese Communist Party.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60736935

Archived

The conversations of small groups break the night’s calm in Wudaoying, one of the most popular hutong (alleyways) in Beijing’s old quarter. At the door of a concert hall, Shao, 27, and Qin, 28, chat with beers in their hands. “They treat me like a little girl and on top of that I have to smile so as not to cause trouble,” Shao complains. She takes a drag from her cigarette and nods toward a co‑worker standing a few meters away. “I’m sick of so much mansplaining,” Qin replies, referring to the condescending explanations by men who assume women know less.

[...]

Now that China’s population has fallen for four consecutive years and the People’s Republic has recorded its lowest birth rate in history, Beijing wants more births. In 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the All‑China Women’s Federation to “guide” women “to play a unique role in promoting traditional virtues and establishing good family customs.”

“I don’t want children. Much less so if I’m being pressured into it,” Qin says in a lower voice. “Any policy related to women is never for our benefit but for the national interest,” she stresses.

[...]

Talking about feminism in China is not banned per se, but independent activism linked to women’s rights operates in an increasingly narrow space. In that context, communities have sprung up in big cities where women share experiences, find mutual support and question what society expects of them. Shao demands tools to make choices about her life: “At university we’re not taught to develop critical thinking, nor is feminism discussed. We have to educate ourselves.” “In China, women are flowers in a garden where we cannot bloom,” she adds.

[...]

Authorities have focused on what they call “extreme feminism.” In 2025 and 2026, the Cyberspace Administration, the regulator responsible for digital censorship, launched month‑long campaigns coinciding with the Lunar New Year against content that encouraged rejection of marriage and motherhood or fomented confrontation between men and women. Amnesty International documented in its 2025 report the shutdown of feminist accounts that addressed sexual harassment and discrimination. Human Rights Watch, for its part, warns of growing government hostility toward feminism, while noting that gender debates are generally tolerated so long as they do not directly challenge the Communist Party.

Last month, the Beijing Institute of Technology fired law professor Pei Yi, citing “serious violations of professional ethics.” Pei had been accused of promoting “radical feminism” after a message in the course group for Protection of Women’s Rights in the Digital Era in which she warned it “could cause discomfort” and suggested canceling the class for students who had enrolled only for the credits. Her words were interpreted as an indirect slight against men, and a clip circulated online in which the teacher asked why none of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee (the party’s top leadership) could be women.

[...]

Taiwanese prosecutors indicted five people on Wednesday for plotting to run over with a car a comedian whose shows have poked fun at the Chinese government, including President ​Xi Jinping.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained that Beijing is ‌trying to use "transnational repression" to go after people in Taiwan who the Chinese government views as separatists or are otherwise politically suspect.

[...]

In a statement, prosecutors in New Taipei said comedian Huang Yi-hao was hit and injured ​by a car last month after a Chinese individual, whom they only identified as "K," ​paid another man to make sure Huang was seriously injured.

The defendants were paid ⁠to fake a car accident and "break the arms and legs" of Huang so he could ​not perform, but in the end he was only lightly injured, the statement said.

The statement did ​not provide the full names of those accused. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. China's government is not tolerant of criticism of its leadership.

[...]

Huang said in a statement on his Facebook page ​he had only mentioned Xi very briefly.

"If people are already treated this way for criticising ​the Chinese Communist Party before it rules Taiwan, how can we expect to keep our current freedom of ‌speech if ⁠the Communist Party ever does rule Taiwan?" he added.

Freedom of speech is constitutionally protected in Taiwan.

[...]

Huang also shared a video of his performance on social media on Wednesday, during which he poked fun at Xi.

In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a club ​in Taipei hours before ​Huang's scheduled performance.

"This ⁠case involves a serious incident in which China is allegedly using cross-border repression to direct lawbreakers in Taiwan to suppress voices with opposing political ​views through extreme violence," prosecutors said.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a ​separate statement ⁠that anyone who accepts orders from China's Communist Party or its collaborators to take part in transnational repression will be "pursued to the end, with no leniency."

Other China critics in Taiwan have been attacked, including ⁠Hong ​Kong singer and activist Denise Ho. She was attacked in 2019 ​in Taipei by a masked man who threw red paint at her.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the ​Taiwanese people can decide their future.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60737055

Taiwanese prosecutors indicted five people on Wednesday for plotting to run over with a car a comedian whose shows have poked fun at the Chinese government, including President ​Xi Jinping.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained that Beijing is ‌trying to use "transnational repression" to go after people in Taiwan who the Chinese government views as separatists or are otherwise politically suspect.

[...]

In a statement, prosecutors in New Taipei said comedian Huang Yi-hao was hit and injured ​by a car last month after a Chinese individual, whom they only identified as "K," ​paid another man to make sure Huang was seriously injured.

The defendants were paid ⁠to fake a car accident and "break the arms and legs" of Huang so he could ​not perform, but in the end he was only lightly injured, the statement said.

The statement did ​not provide the full names of those accused. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. China's government is not tolerant of criticism of its leadership.

[...]

Huang said in a statement on his Facebook page ​he had only mentioned Xi very briefly.

"If people are already treated this way for criticising ​the Chinese Communist Party before it rules Taiwan, how can we expect to keep our current freedom of ‌speech if ⁠the Communist Party ever does rule Taiwan?" he added.

Freedom of speech is constitutionally protected in Taiwan.

[...]

Huang also shared a video of his performance on social media on Wednesday, during which he poked fun at Xi.

In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a club ​in Taipei hours before ​Huang's scheduled performance.

"This ⁠case involves a serious incident in which China is allegedly using cross-border repression to direct lawbreakers in Taiwan to suppress voices with opposing political ​views through extreme violence," prosecutors said.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a ​separate statement ⁠that anyone who accepts orders from China's Communist Party or its collaborators to take part in transnational repression will be "pursued to the end, with no leniency."

Other China critics in Taiwan have been attacked, including ⁠Hong ​Kong singer and activist Denise Ho. She was attacked in 2019 ​in Taipei by a masked man who threw red paint at her.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the ​Taiwanese people can decide their future.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60687522

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60685725

Archived (removepaywall.com)

Four founders of one of China’s most promising artificial intelligence companies, Z. ai [also known in China as Zhipu AI], worked on research in a joint project with a technology institute that the British government accused of having “very strong ties” to China’s main spy agency, according to publicly available research papers from China and an “espionage alert” from Britain.

The nearly four-year AI research project, which overlapped with the company’s start in 2019, was co-funded by Beijing-based China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, according to a previously unreported 78-page report that the project’s leaders compiled to detail their findings.

A CGTRI engineer and one of Z ai’s founders were among the project’s leaders, and three other Z. ai founders contributed to the research, according to the report.

[...]

An additional report says Z. AI co-founder Li Juanzi, a professor at Tsinghua University, led the research alongside CGTRI engineer Cao Weibing and a Southeast University professor. Three additional Z. AI founders contributed to the work:

• Tang Jie, listed as co-author on project papers
• Xu Bin, named as co-inventor on related patents
• Zhang Peng (current Z. AI CEO), holder of software copyrights from the project

[...]

Separate analysis by national security consulting firm Garnaut Global revealed troubling patterns in Z. AI's handling of software vulnerabilities discovered by its AI models: According to the firm's report, Z. AI established a public ledger on August 14, 2026 documenting 2,436 vulnerabilities found in software from Western technology companies, but disclosed only 5% to affected companies before routing data to Chinese government.

Rather than following standard responsible disclosure practices, Z. AI disclosed only 5% of these vulnerabilities to affected vendors. Ten days after posting the ledger, the company replaced it with a notice stating the Chinese government would manage vulnerabilities through databases including one operated by the Ministry of State Security.

James Mulvenon, who leads intelligence research at national security contractor Pamir Consulting, characterized the situation as giving China's peak cyberespionage agency access to exploitable weaknesses in critical Western software systems.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60683796

Archived

Travelers to China be warned: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) just doubled down on regulations that could subject innocent travelers and citizens to exit bans or detention. China’s new entry and exit regulations expand immigration officials’ power to halt travelers and allow the state to impose exit bans for broadly defined “national security” concerns. Of course, these regulations are not the first to permit exit bans. Rather, they formalize and complement a sprawling web of legislation in China that permits the CCP to restrict the movement of citizens and visitors alike on the basis of vague political or national security interests.

[...]

Because Chinese laws such as the Criminal Code, the Counter-Espionage Law, the Law on the Protection of State Secrets, and the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law provide only vague definitions of terms like “espionage” or “state security,” CCP officials have wide discretion in categorizing innocent behaviors as criminal or otherwise banning them. Take, for example, the recent detention of American academic Min Zin, who traveled to China “at the invitation of the Chinese government,” according to the US State Department, to attend a conference. Zin’s family stopped hearing from him shortly after he arrived on June 3, and later discovered that he had been detained on vague accusations of engaging in “espionage,” with Chinese officials claiming he posed a “national security” threat. Although Zin has not been formally arrested or charged, the CCP is reportedly holding him in a windowless, constantly lit room and subjecting him to long interrogations.

[...]

A new report, Risks Beyond Wrongdoing: Traveling to China, also warns, travelers may face an exit ban not because they are accused of wrongdoing, but because restricting them creates leverage over another person, an investigation, or a foreign government. US government guidance warns that relatives of people under investigation — including minors — may themselves be prevented from leaving.

For example, Gao Zhen, a lawful US resident, was detained in China during a holiday trip, and his son, a US citizen, was also unable to leave due to an effective travel ban on Gao’s wife. Therefore, travel risk cannot be assessed solely by examining the traveler’s own conduct. Relatives and close associates of human rights defenders, dissidents, people sought by the Chinese government, or individuals involved in politically sensitive proceedings may have a higher risk exposure than ordinary travelers.

[...]

Travelers should not assume they are safe from the CCP. China’s web of laws can ensnare nearly anyone, and most travelers do not discover they are subject to an exit ban until they arrive at the airport. In a national context that represses ethnic groups and silences dissent, innocent activities like conducting research, working as a journalist, or simply posting to social media could be categorized as criminal. Individuals who have relatives that the CCP deems a threat may be at higher risk, along with those who previously held Chinese citizenship. The CCP does not recognize dual citizenship, so the state could choose to deny consular access or other rights afforded to foreign nationals.

[...]

Archived

The conversations of small groups break the night’s calm in Wudaoying, one of the most popular hutong (alleyways) in Beijing’s old quarter. At the door of a concert hall, Shao, 27, and Qin, 28, chat with beers in their hands. “They treat me like a little girl and on top of that I have to smile so as not to cause trouble,” Shao complains. She takes a drag from her cigarette and nods toward a co‑worker standing a few meters away. “I’m sick of so much mansplaining,” Qin replies, referring to the condescending explanations by men who assume women know less.

[...]

Now that China’s population has fallen for four consecutive years and the People’s Republic has recorded its lowest birth rate in history, Beijing wants more births. In 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the All‑China Women’s Federation to “guide” women “to play a unique role in promoting traditional virtues and establishing good family customs.”

“I don’t want children. Much less so if I’m being pressured into it,” Qin says in a lower voice. “Any policy related to women is never for our benefit but for the national interest,” she stresses.

[...]

Talking about feminism in China is not banned per se, but independent activism linked to women’s rights operates in an increasingly narrow space. In that context, communities have sprung up in big cities where women share experiences, find mutual support and question what society expects of them. Shao demands tools to make choices about her life: “At university we’re not taught to develop critical thinking, nor is feminism discussed. We have to educate ourselves.” “In China, women are flowers in a garden where we cannot bloom,” she adds.

[...]

Authorities have focused on what they call “extreme feminism.” In 2025 and 2026, the Cyberspace Administration, the regulator responsible for digital censorship, launched month‑long campaigns coinciding with the Lunar New Year against content that encouraged rejection of marriage and motherhood or fomented confrontation between men and women. Amnesty International documented in its 2025 report the shutdown of feminist accounts that addressed sexual harassment and discrimination. Human Rights Watch, for its part, warns of growing government hostility toward feminism, while noting that gender debates are generally tolerated so long as they do not directly challenge the Communist Party.

Last month, the Beijing Institute of Technology fired law professor Pei Yi, citing “serious violations of professional ethics.” Pei had been accused of promoting “radical feminism” after a message in the course group for Protection of Women’s Rights in the Digital Era in which she warned it “could cause discomfort” and suggested canceling the class for students who had enrolled only for the credits. Her words were interpreted as an indirect slight against men, and a clip circulated online in which the teacher asked why none of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee (the party’s top leadership) could be women.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60683346

An orphanage that sheltered 300 children, an award-winning school for nomad girls and a crowdfunded village school have all been closed in the space of a few weeks.

Archived

Chinese authorities have shut down at least three privately run Tibetan schools in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture since late August 2026, according to sources in the region cited by the Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR). All three were in Machen (Maqin) County. Together they taught well over a thousand Tibetan children in their own language. Those children are now being moved into state-run, Mandarin-medium institutions.

Sources say the closures are part of a deliberate drive to bring Tibetan children into government schools, where assimilation and political “re-education” are easier to enforce. Because phone and internet communications in the region are tightly monitored, news of each closure has taken weeks to reach the outside world.

[...]

On 2 September, authorities closed the Golog Tadrak Orphan School in Tabo Village. Founded in 2005 with support from the late Dr. Tawu Lobsang Palden and his wife, who lived in Germany, the school was both a home and a classroom for more than 300 children who had lost their parents or come from broken families. For these children, the school was their family, and Tibetan was the language of that family.

[...]

Days earlier, on 27 August, the Ra-Gya Jigme Gyaltsen Grassland Girls’ School (also known as Gangjong Tsathang Girls’ School) was forced to close. Established on 15 October 2005, it served around 800 girls from nomadic herding families across all three traditional Tibetan regions, Ü-Tsang, Kham and Amdo, with about 100 teachers and staff.

[...]

At the end of August, the Jasak village school in Ra-Gya Town was closed after officials verbally told staff that teaching in Tibetan was unacceptable. They were instructed to teach only in the “national common language”, meaning Mandarin Chinese. Villagers had founded the school themselves and kept it alive through crowdfunding so their children would grow up literate in Tibetan. Its roughly 300 students were sent to government boarding schools.

[...]

Not isolated incidents

These closures continue a pattern that has been building in Golog for years:

• July 2021: Sengdruk Taktse School closed, followed by orders shutting seven more private schools in Darlag, Machen, Gade and Chikdril counties.
• 2024: Ra-Gya Gangjong Sherig Norbu Lobling School closed.
• 24 June 2026: Hungkar Dorje Vocational High School, which had taught Tibetan language and culture since 2008, permanently shut.
• August–September 2026: Tadrak Orphan School, Ra-Gya Girls’ School and Jasak village school closed.

Each closure removes another independent space where Tibetan children can learn in their mother tongue.

[...]

In 2023, UN human rights experts warned that China’s colonial-style boarding school system already held around one million Tibetan children and described it as a policy of “forced assimilation.” The Golog closures push more children into that system.

[...]

[Edit typo.]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60685725

Archived (removepaywall.com)

Four founders of one of China’s most promising artificial intelligence companies, Z. ai [also known in China as Zhipu AI], worked on research in a joint project with a technology institute that the British government accused of having “very strong ties” to China’s main spy agency, according to publicly available research papers from China and an “espionage alert” from Britain.

The nearly four-year AI research project, which overlapped with the company’s start in 2019, was co-funded by Beijing-based China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, according to a previously unreported 78-page report that the project’s leaders compiled to detail their findings.

A CGTRI engineer and one of Z ai’s founders were among the project’s leaders, and three other Z. ai founders contributed to the research, according to the report.

[...]

An additional report says Z. AI co-founder Li Juanzi, a professor at Tsinghua University, led the research alongside CGTRI engineer Cao Weibing and a Southeast University professor. Three additional Z. AI founders contributed to the work:

• Tang Jie, listed as co-author on project papers
• Xu Bin, named as co-inventor on related patents
• Zhang Peng (current Z. AI CEO), holder of software copyrights from the project

[...]

Separate analysis by national security consulting firm Garnaut Global revealed troubling patterns in Z. AI's handling of software vulnerabilities discovered by its AI models: According to the firm's report, Z. AI established a public ledger on August 14, 2026 documenting 2,436 vulnerabilities found in software from Western technology companies, but disclosed only 5% to affected companies before routing data to Chinese government.

Rather than following standard responsible disclosure practices, Z. AI disclosed only 5% of these vulnerabilities to affected vendors. Ten days after posting the ledger, the company replaced it with a notice stating the Chinese government would manage vulnerabilities through databases including one operated by the Ministry of State Security.

James Mulvenon, who leads intelligence research at national security contractor Pamir Consulting, characterized the situation as giving China's peak cyberespionage agency access to exploitable weaknesses in critical Western software systems.

[...]

Archived

Travelers to China be warned: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) just doubled down on regulations that could subject innocent travelers and citizens to exit bans or detention. China’s new entry and exit regulations expand immigration officials’ power to halt travelers and allow the state to impose exit bans for broadly defined “national security” concerns. Of course, these regulations are not the first to permit exit bans. Rather, they formalize and complement a sprawling web of legislation in China that permits the CCP to restrict the movement of citizens and visitors alike on the basis of vague political or national security interests.

[...]

Because Chinese laws such as the Criminal Code, the Counter-Espionage Law, the Law on the Protection of State Secrets, and the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law provide only vague definitions of terms like “espionage” or “state security,” CCP officials have wide discretion in categorizing innocent behaviors as criminal or otherwise banning them. Take, for example, the recent detention of American academic Min Zin, who traveled to China “at the invitation of the Chinese government,” according to the US State Department, to attend a conference. Zin’s family stopped hearing from him shortly after he arrived on June 3, and later discovered that he had been detained on vague accusations of engaging in “espionage,” with Chinese officials claiming he posed a “national security” threat. Although Zin has not been formally arrested or charged, the CCP is reportedly holding him in a windowless, constantly lit room and subjecting him to long interrogations.

[...]

A new report, Risks Beyond Wrongdoing: Traveling to China, also warns, travelers may face an exit ban not because they are accused of wrongdoing, but because restricting them creates leverage over another person, an investigation, or a foreign government. US government guidance warns that relatives of people under investigation — including minors — may themselves be prevented from leaving.

For example, Gao Zhen, a lawful US resident, was detained in China during a holiday trip, and his son, a US citizen, was also unable to leave due to an effective travel ban on Gao’s wife. Therefore, travel risk cannot be assessed solely by examining the traveler’s own conduct. Relatives and close associates of human rights defenders, dissidents, people sought by the Chinese government, or individuals involved in politically sensitive proceedings may have a higher risk exposure than ordinary travelers.

[...]

Travelers should not assume they are safe from the CCP. China’s web of laws can ensnare nearly anyone, and most travelers do not discover they are subject to an exit ban until they arrive at the airport. In a national context that represses ethnic groups and silences dissent, innocent activities like conducting research, working as a journalist, or simply posting to social media could be categorized as criminal. Individuals who have relatives that the CCP deems a threat may be at higher risk, along with those who previously held Chinese citizenship. The CCP does not recognize dual citizenship, so the state could choose to deny consular access or other rights afforded to foreign nationals.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/60737055

Taiwanese prosecutors indicted five people on Wednesday for plotting to run over with a car a comedian whose shows have poked fun at the Chinese government, including President ​Xi Jinping.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained that Beijing is ‌trying to use "transnational repression" to go after people in Taiwan who the Chinese government views as separatists or are otherwise politically suspect.

[...]

In a statement, prosecutors in New Taipei said comedian Huang Yi-hao was hit and injured ​by a car last month after a Chinese individual, whom they only identified as "K," ​paid another man to make sure Huang was seriously injured.

The defendants were paid ⁠to fake a car accident and "break the arms and legs" of Huang so he could ​not perform, but in the end he was only lightly injured, the statement said.

The statement did ​not provide the full names of those accused. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. China's government is not tolerant of criticism of its leadership.

[...]

Huang said in a statement on his Facebook page ​he had only mentioned Xi very briefly.

"If people are already treated this way for criticising ​the Chinese Communist Party before it rules Taiwan, how can we expect to keep our current freedom of ‌speech if ⁠the Communist Party ever does rule Taiwan?" he added.

Freedom of speech is constitutionally protected in Taiwan.

[...]

Huang also shared a video of his performance on social media on Wednesday, during which he poked fun at Xi.

In May, two people were prosecuted after spreading faeces and paint at a club ​in Taipei hours before ​Huang's scheduled performance.

"This ⁠case involves a serious incident in which China is allegedly using cross-border repression to direct lawbreakers in Taiwan to suppress voices with opposing political ​views through extreme violence," prosecutors said.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a ​separate statement ⁠that anyone who accepts orders from China's Communist Party or its collaborators to take part in transnational repression will be "pursued to the end, with no leniency."

Other China critics in Taiwan have been attacked, including ⁠Hong ​Kong singer and activist Denise Ho. She was attacked in 2019 ​in Taipei by a masked man who threw red paint at her.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the ​Taiwanese people can decide their future.