Podcasts about muslim uighurs

JOE BIDEN gave his last address from the Oval Office this week in what had to be the most tone-deaf speech ever delivered from the White House. Among other things, President Biden actually condemned the influence of wealthy oligarchs on American politics just two weeks after awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros! We discuss Biden's executive order this week to direct the federal government to support rapid construction of clean energy sources for massive data centers needed to power the rapid growth of artificial intelligence. Even we are getting solicitations from companies wanting to sell us AI services. (Which is hilarious because the AI sending us the spam thinks we're a restaurant!) This is related to the imminent ban of TikTok in the United States and the irony of “TikTok refugees” fleeing to another Chinese app, RedNote. New users are discovering that RedNote doesn't allow the kind of “progressive” content they've come to expect on TikTok—and some are buying into Chinese Communist Party propaganda on issues like the treatment of Muslim Uighurs in western China. Oh, the irony. The US government is shutting down TikTok for American users not because the app is stealing our data. Plenty of tech companies do that. TikTok's sin is sending the data to Beijing instead of Washington DC. Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and a lopsided exchange of a few dozen hostages for about a thousand Arabs held in Israeli prisons on charges of committing acts of terror. It remains to be seen whether other violent Islamist groups in Gaza, like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, will abide by the deal. Finally, we talk about the price of eggs, which has skyrocketed after the culling of millions of hens due to the spread of avian influenza. We're also watching an outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in Tanzania. While only nine people have been infected thus far, the disease has a mortality rate of 90%. Our new book The Gates of Hell is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Derek's new book Destination: Earth, co-authored with Donna Howell and Allie Anderson, is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Sharon's niece, Sarah Sachleben, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer, and the medical bills are piling up. If you are led to help, please go to GilbertHouse.org/hopeforsarah. Follow us! X (formerly Twitter): @pidradio | @sharonkgilbert | @derekgilbert | @gilberthouse_tvTelegram: t.me/gilberthouse | t.me/sharonsroom | t.me/viewfromthebunkerYouTube: @GilbertHouse | @UnravelingRevelationFacebook.com/pidradio ——————Thank you for making our Build Barn Better project a reality! Our 1,200 square foot pole barn has a new HVAC system, epoxy floor, 100-amp electric service, new windows, insulation, lights, and ceiling fans! If you are so led, you can help out by clicking here: gilberthouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to this podcast, our weekly Bible studies, and our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at pidradio.com/app. Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site: gilberthouse.org/video! Think better, feel better! Our partners at Simply Clean Foods offer freeze-dried, 100% GMO-free food and delicious, vacuum-packed fair trade coffee from Honduras. Find out more at GilbertHouse.org/store/.——————NEW DATES FOR OUR ISRAEL TOUR: Due to the war, our 2025 tour will now visit the Holy Land October 19–30, 2025. For more information, log on to GilbertHouse.org/travel.

In today's episode:BLM's official instagram posts a headline about the two cops shot in Compton with the caption "Defund. The. Police." rather than denouncing the heinous crimes committed in their nameThe unhinged belief that Joe Biden will unify the country if he winsThe Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson joins the rest of the 'elite' community in failing to understand what Q isJake Tapper rightly denounces Disney and the NBA for their connection to Chinese concentration camps holding one million Muslim Uighurs and blames it on Donald TrumpSupport the show (https://www.ko-fi.com/imyourmoderator) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/be-reasonable-with-your-moderator-chris-paul.

*) US Congress approves China forced labour bill US senators have approved a bill barring imports from China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The bill is effective unless Chinese businesses can prove goods were produced without forced labour. The measure is the latest in a series of intensifying US penalties over China's alleged abuse of ethnic and religious minorities, especially the Muslim Uighurs. *) Dozens feared dead in blaze at clinic in Japan At least 27 people are feared dead after a fire broke out at a psychiatric clinic in Japan's Osaka city. TV footage showed dozens of firefighters working inside and outside the narrow office building after the blaze was extinguished. Local media reported that police were investigating suspected arson. *) Typhoon Rai forces tens of thousands to seek shelter in Philippines Super Typhoon Rai has made landfall in the Philippines, bringing torrential rain and extremely high winds. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, with warnings of life-threatening flooding in coastal areas. Across the entire planet, there are usually only about five such powerful storms a year. This is the second to hit the Philippines in four months. *) 'Mercenary' spy firms busted in Facebook probe Facebook owner Meta has named half a dozen private surveillance companies, mostly Israeli, for hacking or other abuses. Meta's report accused them of collectively targeting some 48,000 people in more than 100 countries across its platforms. The report said it was suspending roughly 1,500 mostly fake accounts run by seven organisations across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And finally … *) Bruce Springsteen sells song catalogue for $500 million Bruce Springsteen has sold his music rights to Sony in an estimated $500 million deal. The sale includes the singer's recorded music catalogue as well as his body of work as a songwriter, including classic hits such as "Born in the USA". It is the latest in a string of deals that have seen older musicians including Paul Simon, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young reap the benefits of their catalogues towards the end of their careers.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. US correspondent Jacob Magid and environmental reporter Sue Surkes are on today's podcast, hosted by Jessica Steinberg. Magid discusses the reopening of the US consulate in Jerusalem,  considered the defacto mission to the Palestinians closed by Trump. While Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in May that the US would be reopening its consulate in Jerusalem, little progress has been made, a situation examined by Magid in a recent analysis piece. Magid looks at why Israel didn't sign a joint statement at the United Nations last week expressing concern over Beijing's treatment of its Muslim Uighurs. He also examines a statement by a senior Sudanese diplomat, saying that the military's takeover of that country is not expected to dramatically affect the normalization process with the Jewish state. Surkes talks about Israel's 120-strong delegation to Glasgow climate talks, which she will be joining. She also discusses the highlights of her recent feature about why Israel is taking so long to move ahead with solar power, and the decision by the UAE to distance itself from a controversial plan to channel oil from the Gulf to Europe via an overland pipeline through Israel. Discussed articles include: Dragging out consulate reopening, Biden does Israel a favor, but not himself In effort to placate China, Israel refrains from signing UN statement on Uighurs Sudanese diplomat to Israeli TV: Coup won't dramatically impact normalization Israel sending 120-strong delegation to Glasgow climate talks UAE says nixing pipeline agreement won't damage ties with Israel Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: View of the U.S. Consulate General on Agron Street in Central Jerusalem, Israel, March 4, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prager University Part 44 China: Friend or Foe? Is Communism Moral? Follow the Science Why Girls Become Boys Understanding Ayn Rand Did Capitalism Save Communist China? I Used To Be Antifa What Is Identity Socialism?   China: Friend or Foe? https://youtu.be/oSE35VnnOeI PragerU 2.89M subscribers With the help of the United States and other western powers, China has become an economic powerhouse. The idea was that prosperity would persuade China to align its interests with the other free nations of the world. But that’s not what happened. Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley explains why. Script: Communist China is the biggest challenge America faces on the world stage. It’s a challenge that we’ve ignored for far too long. For decades, United States leaders in both parties encouraged deep ties with China. The idea was that China would move away from Communism and embrace freedom and democracy. This idea was wrong. The Chinese Communist Party is now more oppressive at home and aggressive abroad than ever before. It uses every tool at its disposal to strengthen itself while weakening America. Let’s start with trade. Trade is a fundamental, and fundamentally beneficial, part of our economy. But not all trade with all trading partners is the same. The father of capitalism, Adam Smith, observed in The Wealth of Nations that Great Britain’s command of the seas must trump trade benefits. “Defense,” he wrote, “is of much more importance than opulence.” America has long understood this truth. During the Cold War, we limited trade with the Soviet Union. We didn’t want the communist country to use our innovation and economy against us and our allies. Now it’s time to take a similar approach with China. For anyone who might have doubted the need for this, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a very loud wake-up call. As Americans rushed to purchase medical equipment, masks, and gloves, it became obvious we had outsourced a lot of what we needed to China. We had become dependent on them for not only PPE but many of our everyday medicines. Making America dependent on China for critical supplies didn’t happen by accident. It’s part of a strategic plan.  China’s Communist rulers have manipulated supply chains to China’s advantage, often illegally, to give it an edge over America and the free world. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. As it gathered economic strength, China became less free and more aggressive. Now we face an expansionist Communist China whose economic power vastly exceeds anything the Soviets could ever muster. China is using its growing economic clout to advance its authoritarian vision. The country’s rulers are determined to control or eliminate anyone who stands in their way. This explains why China’s Communist rulers ethnically cleanse their minorities. They have forced at least a million Muslim Uighurs into concentration camps. It’s why they impose a surveillance state on their own citizens. Why they have moved to strip freedom from Hong Kong. Why they threaten to take over Taiwan. Why China’s spies have infiltrated American college campuses and classrooms. Why China has stolen intellectual property from our most innovative companies. And why they seek to dominate the United Nations and international agencies like the World Health Organization. The simple fact is that Communist China will not stop. This is why America must respond — and lead. That starts with American resolve. To stand up to China, we need to stand up for our principles. While China has abused the free market to its own advantage, America must defend the integrity of the free market — the only pathway to economic prosperity. We must ensure that our trade relationship is fair and that China isn’t using the rules to its advantage. We must ensure that our most important security-related industries — from essential medicine to semiconductors — have American-friendly supply chains, instead of depending on an authoritarian rival state. We must also end China’s intrusion into American business. That means limiting Chinese investment in critical parts of our economy. And of course, we must support the Chinese people’s right to live free. It’s the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/china-f...   FOLLOW PragerU! Facebook:

Prager University Part 44 China: Friend or Foe? Is Communism Moral? Follow the Science Why Girls Become Boys Understanding Ayn Rand Did Capitalism Save Communist China? I Used To Be Antifa What Is Identity Socialism?   China: Friend or Foe? https://youtu.be/oSE35VnnOeI PragerU 2.89M subscribers With the help of the United States and other western powers, China has become an economic powerhouse. The idea was that prosperity would persuade China to align its interests with the other free nations of the world. But that's not what happened. Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley explains why. Script: Communist China is the biggest challenge America faces on the world stage. It's a challenge that we've ignored for far too long. For decades, United States leaders in both parties encouraged deep ties with China. The idea was that China would move away from Communism and embrace freedom and democracy. This idea was wrong. The Chinese Communist Party is now more oppressive at home and aggressive abroad than ever before. It uses every tool at its disposal to strengthen itself while weakening America. Let's start with trade. Trade is a fundamental, and fundamentally beneficial, part of our economy. But not all trade with all trading partners is the same. The father of capitalism, Adam Smith, observed in The Wealth of Nations that Great Britain's command of the seas must trump trade benefits. “Defense,” he wrote, “is of much more importance than opulence.” America has long understood this truth. During the Cold War, we limited trade with the Soviet Union. We didn't want the communist country to use our innovation and economy against us and our allies. Now it's time to take a similar approach with China. For anyone who might have doubted the need for this, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a very loud wake-up call. As Americans rushed to purchase medical equipment, masks, and gloves, it became obvious we had outsourced a lot of what we needed to China. We had become dependent on them for not only PPE but many of our everyday medicines. Making America dependent on China for critical supplies didn't happen by accident. It's part of a strategic plan.  China's Communist rulers have manipulated supply chains to China's advantage, often illegally, to give it an edge over America and the free world. It wasn't supposed to go this way. As it gathered economic strength, China became less free and more aggressive. Now we face an expansionist Communist China whose economic power vastly exceeds anything the Soviets could ever muster. China is using its growing economic clout to advance its authoritarian vision. The country's rulers are determined to control or eliminate anyone who stands in their way. This explains why China's Communist rulers ethnically cleanse their minorities. They have forced at least a million Muslim Uighurs into concentration camps. It's why they impose a surveillance state on their own citizens. Why they have moved to strip freedom from Hong Kong. Why they threaten to take over Taiwan. Why China's spies have infiltrated American college campuses and classrooms. Why China has stolen intellectual property from our most innovative companies. And why they seek to dominate the United Nations and international agencies like the World Health Organization. The simple fact is that Communist China will not stop. This is why America must respond — and lead. That starts with American resolve. To stand up to China, we need to stand up for our principles. While China has abused the free market to its own advantage, America must defend the integrity of the free market — the only pathway to economic prosperity. We must ensure that our trade relationship is fair and that China isn't using the rules to its advantage. We must ensure that our most important security-related industries — from essential medicine to semiconductors — have American-friendly supply chains, instead of depending on an authoritarian rival state. We must also end China's intrusion into American business. That means limiting Chinese investment in critical parts of our economy. And of course, we must support the Chinese people's right to live free. It's the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/china-f...   FOLLOW PragerU! Facebook:

Mặc dù đã nhận nước Úc là quê hương thứ hai, cộng đồng người Duy Ngô Nhĩ tại Adelaide cho biết, họ vẫn lo sợ về an toàn và tự do của họ. Nhiều người bị gia đình còn ở Tân Cương Trung Quốc, cảnh cáo đừng nên liên lạc với họ. Việc Trung Quốc mở một tòa Lãnh Sự mới tại Adelaide càng gây thêm những lo sợ mới, cả cho họ tại đây và cả gia đình còn ở Tân Cương. Liệu lo lắng của họ như vậy có thực không?

A high-level Chinese report, meant for senior officials but accidentally posted online, has revealed policies in the western region of Xinjiang that are designed to assimilate Muslim Uighurs and other minorities. The paper contains detailed research on a massive relocation scheme that China says will help reduce poverty. Also in the programme: we hear from a young woman in Mandalay who sheltered friends escaping Myanmar's security forces; and German media are reporting that the country’s main opposition party, the Alternative fuer Deutschland, has been designated as a suspected right wing extremist organisation by the domestic intelligence agency. (Photo: A 19 year-old woman appeared in a 2017 state media report on labour transfer. Credit: a still taken from Chinese state media footage)

A vote could come as early today on a motion declaring a genocide against ethnic Muslim Uighurs in China; A look ahead to tomorrow’s virtual meeting between Justin Trudeau and the U.S. President; And who knew what, and when did they know it, regarding the allegations against Jonathan Vance?

Một ủy ban điều tra độc lập ở Anh sẽ xem xét liệu những cáo giác về vi phạm nhân quyền của nhà chức trách Trung Quốc đối với người Duy Ngô Nhĩ có phải là tội ác chống lại nhân loại hay không.

An independent tribunal in Britain is aiming to establish whether the Chinese government’s alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims constitute genocide. An eight-member panel that will act as a jury has been finalized, as researchers examine around 1500 pieces of evidence. - イギリスで第三者法廷が中国政府のウイグル人イスラム教徒に対するいわゆる人権侵害が大量虐殺に当たることを立証しようとしています。研究者たちがおよそ1,500件の証拠を調べる一方で、陪審員として行動する８人からなるこの法廷が最終的に決まりました。

An independent tribunal in Britain is aiming to establish whether the Chinese government’s alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims constitute genocide.

In our news wrap Thursday, at least 32 people were killed in a pair of suicide bombings in central Baghdad, new Labor Department numbers continue to highlight the pandemic's economic toll, President Biden proposes a five-year extension of a longstanding nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and Twitter temporarily locked the account of China's embassy in Washington over repression of Muslim Uighurs. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

In our news wrap Thursday, at least 32 people were killed in a pair of suicide bombings in central Baghdad, new Labor Department numbers continue to highlight the pandemic's economic toll, President Biden proposes a five-year extension of a longstanding nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and Twitter temporarily locked the account of China's embassy in Washington over repression of Muslim Uighurs. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

ABD Dışişleri Bakanı Mike Pompeo, görevi devretmesine saatler kala Çin’i Müslüman Uygur azınlığa karşı soykırımla suçladı.

Quick note, I've posted in the podcast section an episode of Feeding the Dragon. This is a US-China news podcast that I host with Chris Fenton. You can get it on iTunes or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have we jumped the shark with China?When you talk to anyone who is an expert on China, they usually lead off with, "it's complicated." That is true enough, but sometimes we make it harder than it has to be. As for me, I am very much in favor of anyone who wants to do business with/in China, or anyone else for that matter. The problem is the hypocrisy that we see surrounding the issue. Per Bloomberg:Disney, the world's largest entertainment company, said Tuesday that it wouldn't make contributions in 2021 to lawmakers who voted to reject the certification of the Electoral College votes."The insurrection at our nation's Capitol was a direct assault on one of our country's most revered tenets: the peaceful transition of power," Disney said in a statement. "In the immediate aftermath of that appalling siege, members of Congress had an opportunity to unite -- an opportunity that some sadly refused to embrace."Walmart, the biggest retail chain, took a similar stance in its statement."We examine and adjust our political giving strategy at the end of every election cycle, and that review will continue over the coming months," the company said. "However, in light of last week's attack on the US Capitol, Walmart's political action committee is indefinitely suspending contributions to those members of Congress who voted against the lawful certification of state Electoral College votes."Disney, who was in some recent troubles over their movie Mulan, isn't able to see why this might sound odd to the average folk like you and me. On one hand, you are talking about integrity, and yet you just faced criticism for thanking, "a government security agency in Xinjiang province, where about 1m people - mostly Muslim Uighurs - are thought to be detained." Furthermore, as Chris Fenton has pointed out numerous times, Disney does not own 100% of their theme park in China. In fact, they own less than 50%. The majority owner is the Shanghai Shendi Group. Now, the kicker is who owns the Shanghai Shendi Group. Shanghai Shendi (Group) Co., Ltd. is a 100% state-owned, joint venture investment holding company formed by three sponsors - Shanghai Lujiazui (Group) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Radio, Film and Television Development Co., Ltd., and Jinjiang International Group Holding Company. Shanghai Shendi (Group) Co., Ltd. is involved in project investment, construction, and operation through two full subsidiaries: Shanghai Shendi Tourism and Resort Development Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Shendi Construction Co., Ltd. It almost reads as if the government owns a majority stake in Disney's theme park in Shanghai. I'm sure there is a good explanation for this. They aren't into doing business with folks in government who act irresponsibly. If the response to this is that Disney expects more from the US than China, fine with me - just put that out in a public statement. *holds breath*Let me tell you how that would go. 12:00: Newswire: Disney says in press release that it will continue to do business in China despite how the CCP is treating Uighurs. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said, "Look, it is a tough situtaion. We can't control what the CCP does. We are trying to provide a good product to the Chinese market. Hopefully they will stop what they are doing to the Uighurs, and back down in Hong Kong. Also, if I'm being honest, they need to leave Taiwan alone. It's a complex issue, but I think it would be the best for all parties if they let those people do their own thing. However, I can't impact any of that. In the US, what we have seen is atrocious. It feels like our democracy is eroding at the seams. Our company cannot support politicans who took part from the terrible events in D.C. on Janurary 6, 2020. We can impact that, and so we are going to focus our efforts there.12:01: Newswire - Reports out of China that Disney's Shanghai Disneyland Park is closed immediately. After Disney CEO Bob Chapek's recent comments.Okay, it might take until 12:02. Soon after Daryl Morey's tweet heard around the world, except in China, his boss pulling, Tilman Fertitta, was hanging Morey out to dry. Also, it is a bit rich that Fertitta's book is called Shut Up and Listen.This is false, and Tilman knew it. That is why he tried to do damage control within hours of Morey's now-deleted tweet. Morey, now the with 76ers, did in fact speak for the Rockets organization regularly... ya know doing interviews and stuff. Unless Fertitta was saying he agreed with the crackdown in Hong Kong. Which is exactly what he was saying - although implicitly. I'm sure if you got Fertitta alone in a room he would rail about the CCP and talk about capitalism, but when the chips are down, Fertitta showed himself to be a coward. I'm not trying to ignore the real dollars on the table for the NBA, Disney, Nike, or Fortune 500 Company here. The risks of speaking out are enormous. Losing China money is not a badge of honor. However, I'm sorry if your "tough stance" in the US rings hollow when the blowback you will get is minor to what you would get if you said the same thing in China. There is no need to jump the shark. You can either be quiet on issues or speak about them. However, when you do, just be prepared to speak on all of them that you are involved in, not just the ones where you face little repercussions. Once you jump the shark, nobody takes you seriously anymore. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at warroommedia.substack.com/subscribe

As evidence of mass forced labour of Muslim Uighurs in China's Xinjiang region mounts, Australian senator Rex Patrick has introduced a bill to parliament calling for a ban on the importation of any goods made in the region. It's a move welcomed by Australian Uighurs, who hope the bill will become law. - Todisteiden kasvaessa siitä että Kiinan Xinjiang-alueen islaminuskoista uiguuriväestöä käytetään pakkotyövoimana, australialainen senaattori Rex Patrick on parlamentissa esittänyt lakialoitteen alueella valmistettujen tuotteiden maahantuonnin kieltämiseksi.

Çin'in Sincan bölgesinde Müslüman Uygurların kitlesel olarak zorla çalıştırıldığına dair kanıtlar arttıkça, Avustralyalı senatör Rex Patrick, bölgede üretilen herhangi bir malın ithalatının yasaklanması çağrısında bulunan bir yasa tasarısını parlamentoya sundu.Bu, tasarının yasalaşmasını ümit eden Avustralyalı Uygurlar tarafından memnuniyetle karşılanan bir adım oldu.

独立参议员Rex Patrick最近向联邦议会提起了一项新法案，旨在阻止新疆产的商品供应链进入澳大利亚。

International calls to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing are growing, as people around the world question whether China should still host the Games amid widespread human rights abuses across the country.Among those considering a boycott is British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who said in October: “The concern over what’s happening with the Uighurs is not something we can turn away from. Let’s consider, in the rounds, what further action we can take.”US Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, has also spoken out against China’s hosting gig. In October 2019, he told CNBC that “the 2022 Olympics shouldn’t be in China. We gotta say: ‘China, until you become a legitimate country that is going to respect human rights, we’re not going to do business with you.’”Today, I wrote to @iocmedia President Thomas Bach requesting a meeting prior to their Executive Board meeting.The IOC must stand up for freedom and urge Communist China to stop violating human rights, or find a new home for the 2022 @Olympics. pic.twitter.com/wFT4k0GyvC— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) August 6, 2020This week, Australian Senator Rex Patrick told ABC Australia that he supported a boycott of the Games due to security concerns for athletes who attend."It's unsafe for Australians to go to China," Senator Patrick said. "I can't see a change occurring any time soon and indeed people need to consider that in the context of a decision to send athletes to China for the Beijing Olympics."International human rights organizations are making similar demands to relocate the series of high-profile sporting events. In September, more than 160 of them wrote a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asking for the Games to be moved out of China.“The IOC must recognize that the Olympic spirit and the reputation of the Olympic Games will suffer further damage if the worsening human rights crisis, across all areas under China’s control, is simply ignored,” the letter reads. It also says that stripping Beijing of the Games would fulfill the Committee’s duty to “abide by the Olympic Charter’s core principles about ‘human dignity.’”‘Utterly ludicrous’But the Uighur issue is far from the only human rights concern, according to advocates in the West. Tibet has long faced similarly oppressive tactics.“We have been attempting to have a dialogue with the IOC for many, many years,” said Mandie McKeown, the campaign coordinator for the International Tibet Network, one of the organizations involved in the campaign. McKeown said she and other organizations have been urging the IOC to change its attitudes toward China since 2001, when the country was awarded the 2008 Olympics.Upon receiving the letter in September, the IOC agreed to meet with McKeown and other human rights organizations. They gathered — virtually — in early October. McKeown said it was a welcome opportunity, but one that didn’t lead to any promises of a change in venue.  Laborers work at the construction site of the ski jump arena of the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Chongli district of Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, China, Oct. 29, 2020. Credit: Thomas Peter/Reuters “With all the evidence they have at their fingertips, it’s just utterly ludicrous they believe this was the right move,” she said.The IOC defends China’s hosting duties because they believe in the separation between sport and politics.“The Games are about sport and about the athletes,” IOC Executive Director Christophe Dubi said at a recent press conference. “And this is a line we do not cross.”China agrees, not surprisingly. In September, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin criticized the human rights groups for their activism.“Some organizations have linked the so-called human rights issues with the Beijing Winter Olympics in an attempt to put pressure on the Chinese side, which is a mistake to politicize the sports movement,” Wenbin said.‘Intersection of sports and geopolitics’Meanwhile, many China critics say that sports and politics have been intertwined for decades.“The intersection of sports and geopolitics has been a long-established fait accompli,” said Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, a historian and research associate with the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London. She said one of the earliest examples of this nexus was the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.“Nazi Germany served as host and really tried to use their host duties of the Olympiad to showcase to the world what they perceived to be the positives of Nazi ideology,” Krasnoff said, adding that the Nazis wanted the Games to showcase how their program “had helped German society.”At the time, there were a few calls for boycotts, but when the Games began, countries showed up. Only a few individual Jewish athletes from around the world chose to stay home. Later, in 1976, nearly 30 countries boycotted the Games in Montreal, when the IOC refused to ban New Zealand — whose rugby team had toured South Africa during apartheid. Then came the only US-led boycott in Olympic history. The United States refused to attend the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.Dick Pound, a Canadian swimming champion and advocate for ethics in the world of sport, was a new IOC member at the time, when he remembers questioning the US strategy. “If your objective is to change Chinese policy, it has no chance of working. Anybody who thinks it has a possibility of working is just way off the mark.”Dick Pound, former vice president, IOC“If you don’t get out of Afghanistan, we’re going to punish your athletes. And that’ll teach you,” Pound said, laughing. “And everyone is shaking their heads going, ‘This does not have the impact that you seek at all.'”Indeed, the Soviet Union stayed in Afghanistan, and instead organized a counterboycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Pound said a Beijing boycott in 2022 could see similar results.“If your objective is to change Chinese policy, it has no chance of working. Anybody who thinks it has a possibility of working is just way off the mark,” he added.‘Call attention to the issues’What boycotts can do is serve as an effective public relations campaign, historian Krasnoff said. “They can call attention to the issues at hand, force greater public consideration of the issue, and put big international leagues or companies into the spotlight,” she added.But with over a year until the 2022 Games, the reality of any country withdrawing from the Games is still up in the air. And, according to Alan Bairner, a professor of sport and social theory at Loughborough University in the UK, countries need to use that time to weigh the full costs and benefits of a boycott. He warns it could lead to unintended consequences.“If there was a serious attempt to damage China’s reputation through a boycott of the Winter Olympics, [Chinese President] Xi Jinping would simply say, ‘We’ve had 100 years of humiliation at the hands of the British, the Americans, the Japanese, and others. And they’re doing it all over again,’” Bairner said. That response, he added, could embolden China’s president, as opposed to budging his policies.Related: How China uses malware to track Muslim UighursIf countries formally go forward with a boycott, the IOC’s Pound says that athletes’ individual Olympic dreams will still be protected, however.“We will invite them ourselves — as if they were refugees,” he said. “Leave it to the athletes to decide.”McKeown says she and other human rights groups are still strategizing about whether to call for a full boycott. They currently support a diplomatic boycott, a situation in which countries would send athletes to the Games but not their national heads of state.  But she’s confident that the pressure on countries to consider the call to action is mounting.“We will see more and more governments come out and really put their heads above the parapet and say they are not going to stand for this anymore,” McKeown said.The Winter Olympics are slated to begin in Beijing on Feb. 4, 2022.

China says millions of workers --mostly Muslim Uighurs -- have been retrained in centres, which the US has likened to concentration camps. Also: WHO warns of "very serious situation" regarding Covid-19 in Europe, and what are the bizarre new stunts included in the latest Guinness World Records?

In today's episode: BLM's official instagram posts a headline about the two cops shot in Compton with the caption "Defund. The. Police." rather than denouncing the heinous crimes committed in their name The unhinged belief that Joe Biden will unify the country if he wins The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson joins the rest of the 'elite' community in failing to understand what Q is Jake Tapper rightly denounces Disney and the NBA for their connection to Chinese concentration camps holding one million Muslim Uighurs and blames it on Donald Trump

Jeff King interviews Hong Kong expert Ben Rogers to discuss China's new and expanding control apparatus under Xi Jinping's power, which has not only affected Chinese Christians, but also Muslim Uighurs and Hong Kongers. The post Episode 25: Xi’s Iron Fist appeared first on Persecution.

China's campaign against its Muslim minorities — especially the Uighurs who live in the western province of Xinjiang — is well-documented. As 2 million Muslim Uighurs have been reportedly been incarcerated in re-education camps, officially known as "vocational training centers." And members of the Uighur diaspora living outside of China say the government’s mass surveillance apparatus makes it impossible to have a conversation with family members in Xinjiang without officials listening in.Related: 'I just couldn't sleep': Uighur activist calls for China to stop targeting minorities The suppression of Uighurs has prompted international condemnation around the world. Now, a new report by Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security firm, has found that China has been using software to track Uighurs and their diaspora since 2013 — much earlier than previously known.Researchers at Lookout learned hackers created tools disguised as third-party apps to tap into phones in Xinjiang, which then allowed for the ability to record and export information. The malware followed Uighurs even as they fled repression in China to countries across the world. Apurva Kumar, a security researcher with Lookout and a co-author of the report, spoke with The World's host Marco Werman about the firm's findings on the Chinese government's surveillance of Uighurs. Marco Werman: What do the new findings in this report tell us about how aggressive the Chinese government's surveillance campaign is against the Uighurs?Apurva Kumar: The new findings that we talk about in our report here actually showcase four separate malware families that have never been discovered or discussed before. And we know that the targeting is actually quite widespread, and it is also not limited only to China and Uighurs, but may also be targeted towards Tibetans and also Uighur populations outside of China. And yet the topic of those apps is still bent towards Uighurs or Muslim communities, which tells us that there is a certain focus of these communities worldwide.So how is it different than Chinese officials, for example, listening in to or watching phone calls between Uighur families and text messages?The difference here is that the software is installed on their mobile devices and is taking this information without their knowledge specifically on that application, nowhere does it warn you that this is going to be the case. I presume that if you are in China and you're on the phone, you suspect, obviously, that data is going somewhere. But presumably on a secure messaging application or, let's say, on a keyboard application, you're not suspecting it to take all of your contacts and call logs.Related: Uighur restaurant owner speaks out: 'I should fight for my father'As far as Uighurs, though, and Muslim minorities in western China, if this was happening before, many thought it was this surveillance. Does that change the timeline of what we thought we knew of China's repression of Uighurs?I think people understood very well that Uighurs within China were being monitored in whatever way they were given public reporting. But I think what's different here is that it's actually following the Uighur communities as they go around the world. So through public reporting, we know that there are Uighur communities or Uighur people that have escaped to places like Turkey or Indonesia and Malaysia. And now we see this in the targeting. And I think this is in line with some of the findings that we've had.What surprised you most as you conducted this research?I guess the most surprising thing about it was that the actors behind all of these malware tools reuse the same servers to conduct all of these different campaigns. So a campaign is usually a malware or software and then a certain target or a group of people being targeted. So what we saw was that there were various communities all around the world or within China that were being targeted. But then the same infrastructure or related infrastructure or servers on the Internet were being used to communicate to all of these things and get all of the user's personal data. So that was quite surprising to us, the fact that such an advanced actor was able to make a basic mistake like that.What are Uighur activists to do with this information?I think it's very important to understand the risk that you have when you are using a mobile device. It is important to understand that somebody who may be trying to surveil you may be focusing on things that you cannot avoid. For example, Uighurs speak their own language with a specific character set. And this malware specifically focuses on apps that are keyboards or fonts, specifically for Uighur. And so that tells us that they are targeting in a very, very particular way. And most likely Uighur people or Uighur activists are probably communicating in Uighur. And so they need those characters and fonts to communicate with each other. And so it is very important to know how at-risk you might be and exactly what the capabilities of your adversary is in order to protect yourself.This interview has been condensed and edited. 

Global stocks ticked lower at the end of yesterday's trading day as relations between the US and China ebbed further, with an imminent Trump press conference that's said to address pandemic liability, China's strongarm tactics in HK ahd the treatment of Muslim Uighurs. Carlos Casanova of Coface in Hong Kong discusses.

Global stocks ticked lower at the end of yesterday's trading day as relations between the US and China ebbed further, with an imminent Trump press conference that's said to address pandemic liability, China's strongarm tactics in HK ahd the treatment of Muslim Uighurs. Carlos Casanova of Coface in Hong Kong discusses.

Global stocks ticked lower at the end of yesterday's trading day as relations between the US and China ebbed further, with an imminent Trump press conference that's said to address pandemic liability, China's strongarm tactics in HK ahd the treatment of Muslim Uighurs. Carlos Casanova of Coface in Hong Kong discusses.

Today, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous Nazi death camp known as Auschwitz, the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The millions who each year visit Auschwitz, as well as the Holocaust museums in Jerusalem, Washington D.C., and elsewhere become witnesses to an era of almost unimaginable cruelty. They, and we, are told to “never forget.” And we shouldn't. But, it is crucial not only that we remember, but how we remember. Last week, in the online magazine TLS, Nikolaus Wachsmann reflected on the plea of camp victim Zalman Gradowski that future generations would “form an image” of the “hell” of Auschwitz. “But,” Wachsmann writes, “the Auschwitz of popular imagination often bears little relation to the Auschwitz Gradowski had lived and died in. As a global emblem of evil, the camp has become unmoored from its actuality.” For example, Wachsmann relates that “It is often said . . . that Auschwitz was a different planet, so alien that even birds did not sing there.” But that's not true. The camp's surroundings were “rich in wildlife.” So rich, in fact, “that employees of IG Farben, the German firm that enslaved thousands of prisoners, went birding together, while a trained ornithologist among the SS guards meticulously surveyed the local species… for scholarly publications.” In other words, there is a very real human tendency to mis-remember the grave evils of history: to imagine that they happened in a different world; to think that those who perpetuated such evil, or those who scandalously remained silent and complicit, were somehow different kinds of people than we are. Exacerbating this tendency is the modern illusion of moral evolution. That somehow we are more enlightened and tolerant than they, having moved on from the bigotry of our human past. That moral chronological snobbery is not only wrong, it's dangerous, creating a blind spot to the evils and horrors of which we are capable. In his 1993 Templeton Prize address, Chuck Colson described the realization that came to Holocaust survivor Yehiel Dinur at the trial of Adolf Eichmann: “Dinur entered the courtroom and stared at the man  . . . who had presided over the slaughter of millions. The court was hushed as a victim confronted a butcher. Then suddenly Dinur began to sob and collapsed to the floor. Not out of anger or bitterness. As he explained later in an interview, what struck him at that instant was a terrifying realization. ‘I was afraid about myself,' Dinur said. ‘I saw that I am capable to do this . . . Exactly like he.'” Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote about the Eichmann Trial in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem. She found Eichmann neither “perverted nor sadistic,” but “terrifyingly normal.” She called this the “banality of evil.” Hidden evil flourishes. Throughout history, evil has often hidden in plain sight, enabled by it's terrifying normalness and the moral blind spots we self-inflict. And it continues today… Consider how the world is mostly silent as China sends Muslim Uighurs to concentration camps. Or, why the voices of so many victims of sexual abuse in Hollywood, in corporate America, in homes, and churches are only now, decades later, being heard? Just last Friday, hundreds of thousands of people marched, for the 47th time, to draw attention to the government-subsidized slaughter of millions of pre-born babies. Hans Scholl who, along with his sister Sophie was executed in 1943 for founding an anti-Nazi student group called the White Rose, once described his struggle to understand evil. Marveling at the beauty of the German landscape he wrote in a line reminiscent of the Psalmist, “Does God take us for fools, that he should light up the world for us with such consummate beauty . . . And nothing, on the other hand, but rapine and murder? Then Scholl asked a question we should all ask: How ought we respond to evil? “Should one go off and build a little house with flowers outside the windows … and extol and thank God and turn one's back on the world and its filth? Isn't seclusion a form of treachery of desertion? I'm weak and puny, but I want to do what is right.” In Christ, God entered the world in order to confront, and ultimately defeat, evil. He calls us to confront evil as well, but let's be clear: The world Christ entered was this world. The evil He confronts is the evil we too are capable of. As we remember, let's be sure to remember that.

Australia's top diplomat has warned of "enduring differences" between Australia and China as parliamentarians intensified their criticism of the country's human rights record. - در حالی که انتقاد نمایندگان پارلمان استرالیا از وضعیت حقوق بشر در چین در حال افزایش است، عالی رتبه ترین دیپلمات استرالیا هشدار داده است اختلافاتی بین دو کشور وجود دارد که باید با احتیاط مورد بررسی قرار گیرد.

A recent article at WORLD Magazine reported how the Chinese-language app called “WeDevote” recently surpassed 10 million downloads.  That number, as well as the overall success of WeDevote, is even more remarkable given the back story, one that illustrates Beijing's ongoing war on the Bible.   “WeDevote” is a Bible-reading and devotional app known for its “aesthetically-pleasing” design and respect for copyright laws, a rarity in China. The month after its launch, China's biggest app store listed WeDevote as a “Recommended App” right on its homepage.  The Communist Party's crackdown on Christianity in recent years meant that both the app and its developers faced increasing government scrutiny.  Eventually, they were given a choice: shut down the app or face jail time.   Well, a third option, transferring ownership of the app to a Hong Kong-based company, provided a temporary respite from the ultimatum, but the government has now banned “WeDevote” from Chinese app stores. Though the developers are actively seeking some kind of work-around, it's a struggle to get the app in the hands of users on the mainland.  The government's shut down of “WeDevote” is part of a disturbing trend. Last year, China banned online Bible sales. Of course, that doesn't mean Bibles are unavailable in China. Chinese publishers continue to print Chinese-language Bibles. Some are exported, of course, but plenty remain in China.   That's good news. The bad news is that soon, at least spiritually speaking, Chinese-language copies of the Bible may not be worth the paper they're printed on. According to the Guardian, the Communist Party has plans “for ‘retranslating and annotating' the Bible,” in order to “establish a ‘correct understanding' of the text.”  Is there any doubt this “correct understanding” will include reinforcing the primacy of the Communist Party? As one pastor told the Guardian, “The Chinese Communist party . . . wants to be the God of China and the Chinese people. But according to the Bible only God is God.” The reality on the ground is that “The government is scared of the churches,” and is cracking down on them.  Any attempt to control and re-write the Bible is a tacit admission by the Communist Party that it's failing to eradicate Christianity. It's way too late for that, of course. Depending on who you ask, there are between 60 and 100-plus million Christians in China.   Since they cannot eliminate Christianity, the Party's goal is to pervert it, creating a version of Christianity that doesn't threaten the Party's claim of ultimate authority.   This demand for sole allegiance not only targets Christians, but other religious minority groups, like the Muslim Uighurs. Anyone who believes that “only God is God” is a threat to the Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping.   Such repression also reflects that the Party is concerned about its rule. As many experts have pointed out, China's stability rests on an implicit bargain: The Party promises economic growth and broad-based prosperity in exchange for the Chinese people giving up the kinds of political freedoms taken for granted in the West.   With the Chinese economy slowing down, the demographic legacy of China's “one-child” policy, the pervasive corruption and the ever-widening chasm between urban “haves” and rural “have nots,” it's not clear the Party will be able to hold up its end of the bargain.  More and more the Party is looking like yet another would-be “god” that has failed its worshippers. We know, given China's tumultuous history, the sort of bloodshed and chaos that comes from disappointed worshipers there. We also know, given the inherently religious nature of human beings, that such dissatisfaction will only catalyze the growth of the Church and the spread of the Gospel. That means we should pray that God's Word will prosper in China . . . and that God will protect all those who preach it.  

ຍານາງ ມາຣີສ໌ ເປນນ໌ ຣັຖມົນຕີຕ່າງປະເທດອອສເຕຼເລັຍປະນາມ ສປຈີນ ເມື່ອເຫັນຮູບພາບໃໜ່ອັນນຶ່ງທີ່ເປັນຮູບຄົນ ຢູກ້າ ຖຶກລາມໂສ້ແລະໜັດຕາ.ຄົນ ຢູກ່າ ນັ້ນເປັນຄົນ ມູສະລິມ ຂອງພາກເໜືອສ່ຽງຕາເວັນຕົກຂອງ ສປຈີນ.ຮູບນັ້ນຖຶກຖ່າຍຢູ່ໃນອ້ອມແອ້ມ ສູນກັກຄົນຂອງນະຄອນກາສຄາຂອງແຂວງຊຽນຈຽນ ສປຈີນ. ນີ້ເກີດຂຶ້ນເມື່ອທີ່ທານ ໄມກ໌ ປົມປີໂອ ເທຂາທິການ ສຫຣັດ ຮຽກຮ້ອງ... - ຍານາງ ມາຣີສ໌ ເປນນ໌ ຣັຖມົນຕີຕ່າງປະເທດອອສເຕຼເລັຍປະນາມ ສປຈີນ ເມື່ອເຫັນຮູບພາບໃໜ່ອັນນຶ່ງທີ່ເປັນຮູບຄົນ ຢູກ້າ ຖຶກລາມໂສ້ແລະໜັດຕາ.ຄົນ ຢູກ່າ ນັ້ນເປັນຄົນ ມູສະລິມ ຂອງພາກເໜືອສ່ຽງຕາເວັນຕົກຂອງ ສປຈີນ.ຮູບນັ້ນຖຶກຖ່າຍຢູ່ໃນອ້ອມແອ້ມ ສູນກັກຄົນຂອງນະຄອນກາສຄາຂອງແຂວງຊຽນຈຽນ ສປຈີນ. ນີ້ເກີດຂຶ້ນເມື່ອທີ່ທານ ໄມກ໌ ປົມປີໂອ ເທຂາທິການ ສຫຣັດ ຮຽກຮ້ອງ...

Trump wanted a moat with snakes and alligators at the border and sought to shoot crossing migrants in the legs to slow them down. Imam Malik Mujahid LIVE on how Democratic candidates should be approaching key foreign policy issues, such as the detention of millions of Muslim Uighurs in China and the Kashmir Crisis; as well as on remembering Jamal Khashoggi exactly 1 year since his murder. Trump and the right-wing aren't handling impeachment very well, made clear by their ramped up threats of civil war and the unveiling of their new talking point: it's a coup! Geraldo Rivera thanks Hannity for his propaganda helping to make the difference between Trump and Nixon, while Fox & Friends are simply very confused. Bernie's 'no more billionaires' statement is purposefully misunderstood by Blackstone CEO and more. Giuliani tells reporter he's seeking to sue...'The Swamp'? Cohost: Jayar Jackson  Guest: Malik Mujahid  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Under international pressure, China has said it has released a vast majority of the Muslim Uighurs it had placed in detention camps. We follow up with an American citizen who says the Chinese government cannot be trusted, and find out how Beijing’s propaganda machine has responded to his efforts to protect a relative who was detained. If you missed the previous interview, listen to it here. Guest: Paul Mozur, a technology reporter for The New York Times based in Shanghai, spoke with Ferkat Jawdat, a Uighur and American citizen who lives in Virginia. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: Reporters from The Times found, over seven days of traveling through the Xinjiang region, that the vast network of detention camps erected by the government of China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, continues to operate, and even expand.China’s most recent campaign echoes tactics used by other countries, principally Russia, to inundate domestic and international audiences with bursts of information, propaganda, and in some cases, outright disinformation.

A two year-old child is at the centre of a complex diplomatic stand-off. - په چین کې د یو میلیون مسلمانانو په ډله کې یو ۲ کلن استرالیایۍ ماشوم هم زنداني دی

ສານສະບັບນຶ່ງທີ່ອອສເຕຼເລັຍແລະ 22 ປະເທດສາກົນນາໆຊາດລົງນາມແລະເຊັນຮັບຮູ້ທີ່ຖຶກສົ່ງເຖິງຄະນະກັມການຊິດທິມະນຸດຊົນສະຫະປະຊາຊາດ, ຮຽກໃຫ້ ສປຈີນ ຈົ່ງຍຸຕິການກັກໂຕໄວ້ຄົນ ຢູເກີ.ວ່າຊົນເຜົ່າ ຢູເກີ ໃນເຂດນ້ຳແດນດິນຈີນແຜ່ນດິນໃຫຍາຢ່າງມາກມາຍຖຶກກັກໂຕໄວ້ໃນສູນສັມນາຕ່າງໆໃນພາກເໜືອສຽງຕາເວັນຕົກຂອງເຂດ ຊິງຊຽນ ສປຈີນ...

Uighur-Australians are calling on the government to put more pressure on Beijing to release their relatives. Among them - the father of a baby with Australian citizenship - who is now asking for Marise Payne to personally take up his case. - ཨོ་སི་ཏྲེ་ལི་ཡའི་གཞུང་ལ་ཡུ་གུར་བའི་གནད་དོན་ཐད་གནོན་ཤུགས་སྤྲོད་པ། ཨོ་སི་ཏྲེ་ལི་ཡའི་ནང་ཡོད་པའི་ཡུ་གུར་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱ་ནག་གི་བཀག་ཉར་འོག་ཡོད་པའི་ཁོང་ཚོའི་ནང་མི་སྤུན་མཆེད་རྣམས་གློད་གྲོལ་ཡོང་བར། ཨོ་སི་ཏྲེ་ལི་ཡའི་གཞུང་གིས་རྒྱ་ནག་གཞུང་ལ་ཐད་ཀར་གནོན་ཤུགས་སྤྲད་དགོས་པའི་རེ་སྐུལ་ཞུས་འདུག ལྷག་པར་དུ་ཨོ་སི་ཏྲེ་ལི་ཡའི་མི་སེར་ཡིན་པའི་ཡུ་གུར་བའི་བྱིས་པ་ལོ་གཉིས་ཅན་ཞིག་ཤིང་ཅང་ནས་ཕྱིར་བསྐྱོད་མི་ཐུབ་པར་ལྷག་ཡོད་པས། ཁོང་གི་ཨ་ཕས་ཨོ་སི་ཏྲེ་ལི་ཡའི་ཕྱི་སྲིད་བློན་ཆེན་ལྕམ་ Marise Payne མཆོག་ལ་རྒྱ་ནག་གཞུང་དང་ཐད་ཀར་གནད་དོན་དེ་གླེང་རོགས་ཞེས་ནན་སྐུལ་གནང་ཡོད་འདུག

When the Communist party took over mainland China in 1949, there were an estimated 5 million Christians. Three-plus decades of severe persecution under Mao nearly succeeded in eradicating Chinese Christianity. Nearly. By 1976, less than four decades after Mao's death, Christians in China numbered between 60-80 million. That's a low estimate. The actual number could be even higher. As Evan Osnos of The New Yorker wrote a few years ago, “as I traveled around China, I stopped being surprised by my encounters with Christians.” Today, as we've discussed many times on BreakPoint, the Communist Party is cracking down on religious minorities, including Christians. Among the reasons is that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has embraced a Mao-like cult of personality. The current crackdown includes raids and even bulldozing churches, arresting pastors, and discrimination in employment against people holding religious beliefs. Given this increasingly hostile environment, it shouldn't surprise anyone that, as Fox News recently reported, many Chinese Christians are fleeing the country. Included in the report was the story of Liao Qiang, a member of the Early Rain Covenant Church, which was raided in December 2018. More than 100 of its members were taken into custody. After the raid, as she told the Associated Press, Liao's daughter had to “report her whereabouts to police using social media whenever she left her home.” And she was informed that “her safety would not be guaranteed.” This caused Liao to conclude China was no longer a safe place for him or his family. So he fled with them to Taiwan, with hope they will be allowed to enter the U.S. as refugees. Given recent realities in China, including the mass detention of Muslim Uighurs, even more drastic forms of persecution could be in in the future for Chinese Christians. All of this means we will likely see more Christians fleeing from China as refugees. The question is: Where will they go? Back in April, World Magazine reported that “Under [the Trump] administration, refugee admissions have plunged to historic lows, with persecuted Christians in the Middle East suffering from the fallout.” To be clear, these “historic lows” are really low. “The number of Middle East Christians admitted into the United States in 2018 fell by a staggering 98 percent from 2016. Christians from countries that Open Doors ranked highest for religious persecution saw a 76 percent decline from 2016 to 2018.” The numbers in 2019 will be even lower: In the first few months of this year, “30 Iranian Christians, 25 Iraqi Christians, and zero Syrian Christian refugees” had been admitted to the United States. Absent a major change of heart and policy, there's no reason for Chinese Christians to expect refuge in the United States. Other countries could pick up the slack, of course, but why would we expect them to when the world's leader in protecting religious freedom around the world has stopped leading by example? And, we have stopped. I will repeat what I said back in April, “Christians have enjoyed nearly-unprecedented access to the White House, to administration officials and many of the promises made to us have been kept. Unfortunately, the promise to aid persecuted Christians around the world has not been kept.” I understand we are in the midst of a nation-wide and deeply divisive struggle over how to handle illegal immigration, especially on the southern border. The issue of Christian refugees should not be conflated with that conversation. The Trump administration specifically promised to help persecuted Christians around the world and is, this week, holding its second annual ministerial on the issue of religious persecution. We need to make it clear that, knowing what may await our Chinese brethren, we must back up any talk about religious freedom with real, tangible actions. That must include giving Christian refugees a place of refuge. If that sounds harsh, ask Liao Qiang about what harsh really looks like.

Last week, as the world focused attention on the Hong Kong protests, a report came out that gruesomely underscored why the protesters felt led to protest. The report, issued by a London-based panel of international and medical experts, was entitled “Forced Organ Harvesting of Prisoners of Conscience in China.” The “prisoners of conscience” are practitioners of Falun Gong, a combination of Buddhist-derived meditations, physical exercises, and morals. While this sounds harmless enough to Western ears, the Communist Party views Falun Gong as an existential threat. Twenty years ago, the government began a systematic crackdown on the practice and its practitioners, who numbered then around 70 million. Several hundred thousand practitioners were imprisoned without trial, and within ten years, an estimated 2,000 had died in custody. Around 2006, Western media began reporting that the Chinese government was harvesting the organs of Falun Gong prisoners. Lending credibility to this report was that Confucian culture values keeping the body intact after death. Thus, there was no voluntary organ donation system in China until 2015. And yet, in the decade before this, Chinese hospitals were performing tens of thousands of organ transplants every year, raising the obvious question: Where are these organs coming from? The panel, known as “The China Tribunal,” looked into the question and concluded, “Since 2000, the Chinese government prioritized organ transplantation in its national strategy and continuously incorporated organ transplantation into its Five-Year Plans for multiple ministries.” In the Tribunal's words, “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale,” and “Falun Gong practitioners have been one - and probably the main - source of organ supply.” Before being imprisoned, Falun Gong prisoners would be thoroughly examined, with blood tests, x-rays, and ultrasounds to determine the condition of their internal organs. Such tests make no sense for prisoners facing forced labor, brainwashing, torture, and death. But the strategy enabled the People's Republic to “perform more transplants than any other country in the world in just a few years, all this despite the lack of a voluntary organ donation system.” More recently, evidence suggests that Muslim Uighurs have joined Falun Gong practitioners on the list of involuntary donors. And it's hard to imagine that Christians will not soon be added to that list, unless something changes. The Chinese Communist Party's violations of basic human decency are revolting, but they should not be surprising tous given the regime's history. Among the Party's most consistent and enduring characteristics has been a flagrant disregard for human suffering. Between 1958 and 1962, an estimated 45 million people died as a result of the “Great Leap Forward,” which was Mao's attempt to reinvent China's economy overnight. In addition to the tens of millions that dead from famine and famine-related disease, 2.5 million people were tortured to death or just executed. Four years later Mao, in an attempt to consolidate his power, launched the “Cultural Revolution,” which killed another three million people. Now since current leadership resembles Mao more and more, consolidating power and cracking down on perceived threats, this recent report's findings should come as almost a thing expected. This is why the resistance of Hong Kong's people to Beijing's encroachment on their freedoms, especially religious freedom, should not surprise us at all. They know the history of Communist Party rule. They know what's going on in the rest of China. They know what Chinese leadership is capable of. And they know that many of them could be next. That's why they protest, and it's also why we should support them.

Thirty years after Tiananmen Square, human rights abuses continue to proliferate in China. Hundreds of thousands, possibly as many as 3 million, Muslim Uighurs are currently held by the Chinese government in political reeducation facilities. Individuals inside these facilities are subject to indoctrination, forced labor, torture, and in some cases, even death. Collectivization of this population was achieved through the Chinese government’s rapid deployment of large-scale surveillance technology – technology that poses a severe threat to people inside and outside of China. The crisis in Xinjiang is both a human rights and national security threat that merits a strong response from the U.S. government. While the U.S. and the international community has been quick to condemn the Chinese government’s actions, it has been slow to craft a strategy that holds accountable those in China responsible for the abuses.Please join us for a discussion on next steps to respond to the crisis in Xinjiang. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For two months in 1989, students gathered in Tiananmen Square demanding political reforms analogous to the economic reforms instituted by then-Chairman Deng Xiaoping. After some initial indecision, the Communist Party decided to crack down. On May 20th, the government declared martial law and moved 250,000 troops into Beijing. On June 3rd, state-run television warned Beijing residents to stay inside. The next day, the Army advanced toward Tiananmen Square. Protestors attempted to impede the army's advance and destroyed more than 100 military vehicles, and damaged nearly 500 others. But ultimately resistance would prove to be futile. Trucks and armored personnel carriers joined tanks and attack helicopters. The army's principal target was a 10-meter tall statue dubbed the “Goddess of Democracy,” which was erected by the students and bore a more-than-passing resemblance to the Statue of Liberty. After first firing warning shots, the troops fired directly on the protestors. Estimates of the death toll range widely, from hundreds to thousands. In addition, at least 1,600 people were arrested, many imprisoned for more than two decades, and others who were never seen again. The message from the Communist Party was clear: To be rich might be, as Deng once put it, “glorious,” but forget about being free. The events of June 1989 made clear that the Communist Party was determined to retain complete political and social control. Given this history with this regime, no one should be surprised at the recent crackdown on Chinese Christians and Muslim Uighurs. But what is surprising  is how many Chinese today are untroubled by the events of June 1989. Even worse, the authors of a recent article in the Washington Post described a popular nostalgia for Mao Zedong. Mao's rule was among the most brutal in all of history. This is the Mao whose attempt to industrialize and collectivize China virtually overnight—called the “Great Leap Forward”—killed “at least 45 million people.” This is the Mao whose “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” attempted to purge Chinese society of capitalist and traditional elements by killing between 500 thousand and 3 million people, and sending countless more into internal exile. Among its victims were the father and aunt of current leader Xi Jinping, who committed suicide as a result of being persecuted. The tragic irony is that any nostalgia for Mao only helps legitimize the authoritarianism and oppression now expanding under Xi. How can we make sense of this selective and misguided historical memory? Most of the nostalgic are too young to have personally experienced Mao's rule. Even more, they haven't been taught the truth about Mao or Tiananmen and state-approved or state-run schools. Of course, that same thing can't be said of us in the West, whose memory is just as selective and just as wrong when it comes to communism. Writer Cathy Young, who lived in the USSR until she was 17, describes what she calls “Commie Chic.” She's not referring to Soviet apologists or sympathizers prior to the 1991. She's talking about a 2018 Teen Vogue article that urged readers to use Karl Marx's ideas to understand how Donald Trump was elected president. She's referring to a 2017 New York Times op-ed insisting that women had better sex in communist East Germany. Or one hard-left publication that recently tweeted “For all the Soviet Union's many faults, by traversing its vast architectural landscape, we can get a glimpse of what a built environment for the many, not the few, could look like.” Now if all we knew about communism were its history of oppression and mass murder, that should be enough to disavow us of any nostalgia for it. As the authors of the “Black Book of Communism” wrote, “Communist regimes turned mass crime into a full-blown system of government.” The result was 100 million-plus deaths, including the martyrs of Tiananmen Square. But that tweet itself about building environments for the many, not the few, tells us all we need to know about the flawed worldview that undergirds this great historical evil. To a communist, the society is always more important than the individual. Individuals must be sacrificed for the utopian and fantastical ‘greater good' that lies somewhere in the future and always just beyond reach. Whenever it's tried, in the past or in the future, this fatal flaw will leave fatalities, because bad ideas have victims. The history of communism, like its worldview, is neither glorious nor worthy of nostalgia.  

Experts at Creswell Crags in Nottinghamshire thought the hundreds of markings covering the walls of caves were Victorian graffiti. Now they are believed to be Britain's largest collection of 'witch markings' from 16th - 18th centuries to protect people from the dark forces of the underworld. Reporter Harry Farley went to see them. The head of China’s state-sanctioned Protestant Church claims Western forces are trying to use Christianity to “subvert” the Chinese government and the Governor of Xinjiang province says the ‘re-education camps’ for Muslim Uighurs are reducing terrorism. Edward Stourton discusses religion in China with Maria Jaschok and Edmond Tang. In response to the New Zealand Mosque attacks, Edward speaks to the Bishop Christchurch. Samayya Afzal, Community Engagement Manager for the Muslim Council of Great Britain and Dr Rosemary Hancock of the University of Notre Dame in Sydney Australia discuss Islamophobia and what lies behind it. Producers Carmel Lonergan Helen Lee Editor Amanda Hancox Photo Credit: Creswell Heritage Trust

The steadily deteriorating state of religious freedom in China has been a frequent topic of late, both here on BreakPoint and other media outlets. The picture is bleak. An estimated one million Muslim Uighurs have been detained in what are essentially re-education camps, as part of an attempt to erase their religious and cultural identity. There's also been a strong assault on Chinese Christianity. What little freedom Chinese Christians had is now being taken away: Provincial officials have demolished crosses, cracked down on house churches, arrested pastors, and put officially-recognized churches under tighter control. Thus, the recent report out of Liaoning province, a region near the border with North Korea, shouldn't surprise us. It should trouble and appall us, but not surprise us. According to the Australian website MercatorNet, the Education Bureau of Lishan district” in Liaoning “issued a plan for the campaign to resist religious beliefs in kindergartens.” The plan prohibits schools from “hiring [new] teachers who hold religious beliefs.” With regard to existing teachers, it calls for increased supervision, including “comprehensive inspections of teachers' preparation for lessons in order to root out any and all religious content.” But the plan doesn't stop with teachers. Students, as well as teachers, are now required to “sign a commitment statement promising they won't browse religious websites or participate in religious forums.” The statement reads in part, “I will adhere to the correct political direction, advocate science, promote atheism, and oppose theism.” These are kindergartners! It's not only in that province. Students in other parts of China have also been coerced into signing anti-religious pledges. And there are reports of students who, because they refused to sign, have been beaten. Unfortunately, short of divine intervention, it may be that things will get significantly worse. As I've told you before on BreakPoint, Xi Jinping has become the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao. Like Mao, Xi has fostered a cult of personality. He calls himself lingxiu, a reverential term for “leader” not heard since the days of Mao. It's very similar to what Fuehrer means in German. Fawning coverage of Xi in official media borders on self-parody. Christians have been in the crosshairs of the Xi Jinping cult. Believers in south China have been forced to take down pictures of Jesus from their walls and replace them with pictures Xi Jinping. Not only is he a jealous would-be god, he's also an insecure one. To understand why, you need to understand that the source of the Communist Party's legitimacy has been economic growth. For the past forty years, the Chinese people have been asked to trade certain freedoms that we take for granted, such as freedom of speech and religion, for increasing prosperity. That trade has preserved a measure of social order. But now, many economists see signs that the good times are coming to an end in China. In fact, that may be an understatement. It could be something even worse. As the Wall Street Journal reports, “China's consumers and businesses are losing confidence. Car sales have plunged. The housing market is stumbling. Some factories are letting workers off for the big Lunar New Year holiday two months early.” In other words, the Communist Party may not be able to keep up its end of the bargain. If they fail, ordinary Chinese people could remember everything they've had to put up with and get angry. Very angry. So how will Xi respond to this? We already know the answer to that question. He will crack down even harder. Cult leaders don't admit mistakes, much less give up their power voluntarily. They look for scapegoats and hunt for heretics. In China, Christians qualify as both. As adherents to what many Chinese regard as a “Western” religion, their loyalties can be called into question. And they'll likely not join Xi's cult of personality, so they will be ideal targets. All of this is why our brothers and sisters there need our prayers. And our voice. We must urge our government and U. S. corporations that do business in China to use their influence on behalf of persecuted Chinese Christians. http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/02/breakpoint-persecution-rising-in-china/   Resources Students in China are forced to sign away their religious commitments Piao Junying | Mercatornet.com | February 13, 2019 China Tells Christians to Replace Images of Jesus with Communist President Kate Shellnutt | Christianity Today | November 17, 2017

The Muslim Uighur community in Australia says it's being subjected to increasingly bold surveillance tactics by Chinese authorities. SBS has spoken to Uighurs who say their families have been detained in China and are being used as pawns in an effort to force them to return. - ཨོ་སི་ཏྲེ་ལི་ཡའི་ནང་གནས་སྡོད་མཁན་གྱི་ཤིན་ཅང་ཡུ་གུར་བ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་རྒྱ་ནག་གཞུང་གིས་འཛིན་བཟུང་བཀག་ཉར་དང་ཁོང་ཚོའི་ནང་མི་རྣམས་ལ་རྒྱ་ནག་གཞུང་གིས་གནོན་ཤུགས་དང་དམ་དྲག་ཆེན་པོ་བྱེད་བཞིན་ཡོད་འདུག

January 11, 2019 China’s policies in the north-western region of Xinjiang have come under international criticism in recent months, especially the detention of tens if not hundreds of thousands Muslim Uighurs. The Chinese government says the re-education camps and other surveillance measures in Xinjiang are part of a campaign to fight terrorism and religious extremism. But the independent researcher Adrian Zenz, who has studied numerous government documents on Xinjiang, says China attempts to enforce “complete control” and loyalty towards the Communist Party. The CCP wants long-term generational change and younger Uighurs to forget their religious and cultural roots, Zenz says in the latest MERICS Experts podcast.

In China’s far West, Muslim Uighurs are under attack in a wave of official repression occurring on a scale not seen since the Cultural Revolution. For James Leibold, an expert in China’s ethnic policies, the question is not what China is doing, but how to stop it. * This podcast was recorded on September 26, 2018. Follow James Leibold, Associate Professor, La Trobe University, at https://twitter.com/jleibold. *

5) Saudis may admit killing Khashoggi—sort of; 4) Australia may recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital; 3) China admits holding Muslim Uighurs in reeducation camps; 2) Ebola in Congo won't go away; 1) Welcome our new robot overlords.

We reflect on the deep Christian faith and gospel roots of Aretha Franklin with music, archive and the reflections of biographer David Nathan. American pastor Andrew Brunson is at the heart of a trade war between Turkey and the US. Emily Buchanan talks to Pastor Ryan Keating, who was himself deported from Turkey on charges of being a threat to national security about the place of Christianity in Turkey today. A report at the UN this week claimed that China is holding a million Muslim Uighurs in detention in Xinjiang province. The BBC's China correspondent John Sudworth talks to Emily Buchanan. Carol Monaghan is the SNP MP for Glasgow North West. She talks to Harry Farley about wearing her faith on her sleeve for our series on faith in Westminster. Ahead of the Pope's visit to Ireland a debate is raging over whether the World Meeting of Families is too exclusive and conservative or too liberal and inclusive. Martin Pendergast and Anthony Murphy join the programme to discuss that question. As more and more cases of clerical abuse come to the fore, Emily Buchanan speaks to Mark Stibbe who alleges he was abused by conservative evangelical Christian camp leader John Smyth, who died this week. And Safeguarding expert Donald Findlater discusses why there are so many sex abuse scandals involving clergy. Ben Wood, Chair of the National Association of Teachers of RE, talks to Emily Buchanan about the dramatic drop in RE studies at A Level - why it's declining and what he thinks should be done about it. Editor: Christine Morgan Producers: Catherine Earlam Harry Farley.