Displaying items by tag: China

Beijing and New Delhi have long been at loggerheads over a disputed border in the Himalayan mountains (see ) This led to massive skirmishes earlier this year. The two Asian powers are battling it out over water. China will build a hydroelectric project in one of the largest rivers in the world, which Indians call the Brahmaputra River. After Beijing announced its biggest hydropower project in history, New Delhi said that its aggressive plans could have major implications for India's food and water security, and would give China power to use waterways as a ‘weapon.’ Indian officials are now considering a rival water project in the same waters, from Arunachal Pradesh to Bangladesh. Analysts say that things could quickly spiral out of control because the two powers have not honoured a water-sharing agreement, which usually governs plans and discussions surrounding new water projects.

Beijing’s new laws will disqualify state elected legislators if they support Hong Kong's independence, refuse to acknowledge China's sovereignty, ask foreign forces to interfere in the city's affairs, or in other ways threaten national security. Four legally-elected legislators have been ejected, causing a mass resignation of most of Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers from parliament. This is an ‘open challenge’ to China’s authority. Many now see Hong Kong's limited democracy as in its death throes. The UK government accused China of breaching its commitments to protect Hong Kong's autonomy. They were promised they could keep some unique freedoms for fifty years. Dominic Raab said, ‘Beijing's imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong constitutes a clear breach of the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration, breaking its promises again and has undermined Hong Kong's special degree of autonomy.’ The USA called it a move towards one-party dictatorship.

China orders hospitals to abort, kill new-born babies of religious and ethnic minorities

Hospitals in Xinjiang were ordered by China’s Communist government to abort and kill all babies born in excess of its mandated family planning limits — including new-borns born after being carried to full term — or face hefty fines, claims a new report.

Hasiyet Abdulla, a Uighur obstetrician who worked in multiple hospitals in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region for 15 years, told Radio Free Asia that maternity wards implemented strict family-planning policies intended to restrict Uighurs and other ethnic minorities to three children.

Abdulla told RFA that babies were aborted even if their mothers were “eight and nine months pregnant,” adding that in some cases, medical staff would “even kill the babies after they’d been born.”

Babies who had been born at the hospital outside of family-planning limits weren’t safe either, she said, adding doctors would “kill them and dispose of the body.”

“They wouldn’t give the baby to the parents — they kill the babies when they’re born,” she said.

“It’s an order that’s been given from above, it’s an order that’s been printed and distributed in official documents. Hospitals get fined if they don’t comply, so of course they carry this out.”

In June, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom argued that the forced sterilization of Uighur Muslims is “evidence of genocide.”

“It’s evident from the Chinese government’s own data that the Communist Party’s policies are clearly designed to prevent population growth for the Uyghur, Kazakh, and other Turkic Muslim peoples,” USCIRF Commissioner Nury Turkel said in a statement.

“We urge the State Department to investigate whether the Chinese authorities’ deliberate and systematic attempt to genetically reducing the Turkic Muslim population in Xinjiang meets the legal definition for genocide as contemplated in the Genocide Convention.”

In a statement to Fox News, Morgan Ortagus said the U.S. State Department is “extremely concerned by reports of forced abortions and sterilization in Xinjiang.”

"These reports are consistent with an overwhelming and growing body of information that exposes the Chinese Community Party’s campaign of brutal repression targeting Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. We reiterate our call on the PRC [People's Republic of Chinahttps://www.christianpost.com/news/xinjiang-hospitals-forced-to-abort-kill-newborn-babies-born-outside-family-limits.html">https://www.christianpost.com/news/xinjiang-hospitals-forced-to-abort-kill-newborn-babies-born-outside-family-limits.html

Pray: for this ruthless and inhumane killing of unborn and newly born babies by the Chinese government to be stopped.

Pray: for an immediate cessation of the forced sterilisation and population control.

Pray: wisdom, authority and protection for those who are campaigning and advocating for the Uighur people and other ethnic groups.

Mission organisations say that the church is the largest social force in China not controlled by the Communist Party, and the Communist government prohibits large meetings and non-communist social media sites. They are also ‘rewriting’ the Bible to reflect the government’s communist worldview. Ask God to bless church leaders with supernatural wisdom and increased unity with one another (1 Corinthians 1:10). Ask Him to move powerfully in the lives of the victims of flooding that displaced millions and killed hundreds recently. Pray for the young generation of Chinese to experience a hunger for truth and freedom that leads them to salvation (Luke 6:21). Also hospitals in Xinjiang Province must abort and kill all babies born in excess of its mandated family planning restricting ethnic minorities to three children including full-term new-borns. In addition to forced birth control and sterilisation, religious minorities are subject to massacres, internment camps, torture, organ harvesting, and disappearances. See

CSW has called on China to release Christian human rights defender and former lawyer Zhang Zhan, who is on a hunger strike, causing fears for her health, after 150 days in detention. She posted videos and articles from Wuhan about the Covid-19 outbreak. Social media platforms are blocked in China. She questioned whether the authorities' response to the epidemic infringed on human rights, and asked if the severity of the outbreak had been covered up. She was deeply concerned about the voiceless Wuhan citizens who face destitution after losing livelihoods. She is accused of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ and refuses to plead guilty. Zhang’s lawyer met her for the first time in detention on 18 September and reported she was still on a hunger strike and had lost weight. Detention staff are force-feeding her as she refuses to eat or drink anything.

Patches on US uniforms made for military exercises off California’s coast showed an MQ-9 Reaper drone superimposed over a red silhouette of China. Throughout September the US has staged simulated island assault exercises featuring this red silhouette in what China described as a provocative gesture, saying China would fight back if the US attacked them in the South China Sea. US-based Air Force magazine reported that the military training suggested the air force was focusing more on the Pacific region. The drills deployed the Navy’s carrier strike groups, submarines and other vessels and aircraft to the eastern Pacific, plus transport aircraft and special warfare and marine corps personnel. The squadron commander said, ‘It’s a demonstration of our capability to rapidly move the MQ-9 anywhere in the world and then get out, showing its operational reach capabilities.’

Taiwan has reported a sharp rise in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence identification zone. Foreign minister Joseph Wu urged Beijing to ‘return to civilised international standards’ after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said there was no so-called median line in the Taiwan Strait ‘as Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory’, to be taken by force if necessary, even though the island has been self-ruled for more than 70 years. Beijing has ratcheted up pressure on the democratic island since the 2016 election of President Tsai who rejects its view that Taiwan is part of ‘one China’. Taiwan accuses China of violating a long-held tacit agreement after China’s fighter jets began crossing the median line of the waters that separate the two sides. Now tension between the two is at its highest in years, with Taiwanese fighter jets scrambling to intercept the Chinese aircraft last week.

The Chinese government is obtaining blood samples from up to 70 million – 10% of all men and boys – as the high-tech surveillance state builds a ‘DNA Skynet’ of the country’s 700 million males. Any individual who refuses to give blood samples risks his family being barred from benefits such as travel, fast internet connection and hospital treatment. The powerful genetic mapping tool, which is being compiled from samples collected since 2017, will join up with China’s existing countrywide video-surveillance network. The system will be capable of tracking every male relative of any individual man just from a sample of his genetic material, such as skin or hair. Only 5-10% of the male population needs to be sampled in order to build a complete genetic map, because one sample unlocks the identity of all related males.

On 4 August, Typhoon Hagupit struck while the Yangtze flood levels were still high (see). Two months of heavy continuous rain had caused 433 river levels to rise above flood control lines, devastating 27 of the country's 31 provinces. Thirty-three rivers reached record highs. Economic losses are about 86 billion yuan (£9,404 million) to date. Pray for God to release ongoing support and humanitarian aid to all of the affected areas. Pray for the millions of displaced people to be safe in their shelters, and for a stable future for countless families whose homes and livelihoods are affected.

Police in Hong Kong are seeking the arrest of six pro-democracy activists living in exile in Western countries, including the UK, media reports say. The group reportedly includes former UK consulate worker Simon Cheng, well-known activist Nathan Law and US citizen Samuel Chu. They are wanted on suspicion of violating a new security law imposed in Hong Kong by Beijing, Chinese state TV reported, calling them "troublemakers".  Hong Kong police declined to comment.

The development comes after legislative elections scheduled for September were delayed for a year by Hong Kong's government on Friday. It said the move was necessary because of a spike in Covid-19 infections, but the opposition accused it of using the pandemic as a pretext. The White House said the move undermined democracy.

Pro-democracy politicians had hoped to capitalise on anger in the Chinese territory about the new security law to win a majority in the Legislative Council (LegCo).  Many in Hong Kong, a former British colony handed back to China in 1997, fear that unique freedoms meant to be guaranteed until 2047 are under serious threat.

The UK and Australia are among countries that have suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong in recent weeks. Germany did so on Friday - one of those reported to be on the new "wanted list" has received asylum there.

Who are the 'wanted'?

Chinese state TV network CCTV said six people were wanted on suspicion of inciting secession or colluding with foreign forces - both crimes can be punished with up to life in prison under the new security law.

The six, according to CCTV and Hong Kong media, are:

Simon Cheng, a former employee of the UK's Hong Kong consulate who was recently granted political asylum in Britain.   Nathan Law, 27, a high-profile activist who has fled to the UK.

The Hong Kong residents ready to leave for the UK…

Samuel Chu, a US citizen. He is the son of Reverend Chu Yiu Ming, a Baptist minister who was one of the founders of the 2014 "Umbrella Movement". Mr Chu runs the Washington DC-based Hong Kong Democracy Council and said he last visited Hong Kong in November 2019.  "I might be the first non-Chinese citizen to be targeted, but I will not be the last. If I am targeted, any American and any citizen of any nation who speaks out for Hong Kong can, and will be, too," he said.

The national security law carries extraterritorial provisions that say anyone, including non-Hong Kong residents, can be charged under it.  China says the law is necessary to restore stability and order in the global financial hub.

Ray Wong, a pro-independence activist who fled to Germany in 2017 and is now in Britain, told the BBC that the list of "wanted" exiles had been drawn up to "intimidate" pro-democracy activists who are trying to drum up international support for their cause.

Lau Hong (also known as Honcques Lau), an 18-year-old now in the UK, first came to prominence in November 2017 when he brandished a pro-independence banner next to Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam.  "Come arrest me in the UK," he was quoted as telling a journalist on Friday.

Wayne Chan, another pro-independence activist, is in an undisclosed country.  "For me, the situation faced by Hong Kongers is even more dangerous than what I face. I can't think too much about my personal safety," he told Reuters news agency.

More info: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53616583

Pray: that the new security law will be overturned

Pray: for these 6 people and many more who have campaigned for their democratic rights and freedom of speech – that they will not be unjustly treated or imprisoned.

Pray: that the elections will not be unduly delayed, and that the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong will be restored.