Translation : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News on Taiwan, Canada, CCP
News (1) to (5) / Editor : Fang Xun / Source: RFA / https://www.aboluowang.com/2024/1125/2135204.html / Image : On 23 November 2024, Tsai Ing-wen attended the Halifax International Security Forum held in Canada and received a standing ovation from all the participants. Screenshot of the Halifax Forum video conference
News (1)
Hitting the pain point! Tsai Ing-wen pointed out Xi Jinping at an international conference
— Tsai Ing-wen dares to comment on Xi Jinping! Tsai Ing-wen's speech in Canada was strongly condemned by Beijing
On 23 November 2024, Taiwan's former president Tsai Ing-wen attended the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX) held in Canada and delivered a speech. She called on democratic countries to continue to support Ukraine and unite to deter the expansion of authoritarianism such as China. Tsai Ing-wen also announced that Halifax will hold the forum in Taiwan for the first time in February 2025.
Amid applause and standing tributes from the crowd, Tsai Ing-wen, winner of the "McCain Public Service Leadership Award", delivered a keynote speech at HFX. This forum is one of the most important international security conferences. Tsai Ing-wen cited the Russia-Ukraine war, the impact of the Taiwan Strait and the U.S. presidential election as examples, mentioning that the authoritarian expansion encountered by democratic countries is deeply affecting economic and social life.
News (2)
Tsai Ing-wen supports the U.S. to give priority to aiding Ukraine
Tsai Ing-wen said that she supports the United States to give priority to aiding Ukraine and called on the democratic world to continue to support Ukraine, because the situation in Ukraine is a wake-up call for all democratic countries, and democratic countries should also increase their self-defense capabilities in various fields. She said: "Ukraine's victory will be the most effective deterrent to the expansion of authoritarianism, and it will also convey to authoritarianism that coercion or force against any member of a democratic society will have serious consequences."
News (3)
Tsai Ing-wen retorts to China that Xi Jinping has complex and challenging issues, CCP embassy condemns
During the question-and-answer session, the host, Nick Schifrin, a senior American journalist, asked about the timetable and response to China's invasion of Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen jokingly complained to Schifrin that "I promised not to 'torture', but I didn't do it", which caused laughter in the audience. Tsai Ing-wen said that there are many timetables estimated by the outside world, and the earliest may be 2027. Therefore, Taiwan has been actively preparing for war. She also bluntly retorted to China: "Xi Jinping himself has complex and challenging issues, so my suggestion is that he may need to spend more time dealing with his own domestic problems."
The Chinese Communist Embassy in Canada issued a statement criticizing the Halifax International Security Forum for insisting on inviting "Taiwan independence" elements to participate and awarding them awards, which seriously violated the one-China principle. CCP China stressed that it "firmly opposes any Taiwan independence elements to visit CCP China's diplomatic ties with other countries under any name."
News (4)
HFX will be held in Taiwan in February 2025
Tsai Ing-wen also announced at the meeting that the Halifax International Security Forum will hold its first event in Taiwan in February next year. Taiwan invites friends from all countries to visit and experience the vibrant democratic society firsthand.
Tsai Ing-wen is the first outgoing president of Taiwan to visit Canada, and met with heavyweight politicians from many countries such as Europe and the United States through the security forum, which has attracted the attention and recognition of the international community.
Image : Tsai Ing-wen called on democratic countries to unite and resist the threat of authoritarian countries. (Tsai Ing-wen's Facebook)
What China opposes is right and great
Ottawa Taiwan Overseas Chinese Affairs Commissioner Ma Zhikai praised Tsai Ing-wen and the Taiwan government for their success in international diplomacy in recent years, and believed that making China unhappy meant success: "We hit its sore spot, so what China opposes, we did, which is right, it's really great."
Authoritarian countries are harmful to humanity
Vancouver Taiwan Overseas Chinese Affairs Commissioner Zhang Liwei has just returned from a visit to Bulgaria, which was once ruled by the former Soviet Union. She said that authoritarian countries such as Russia and China are harmful to humanity. Once they are harmed by them, it will be difficult for several generations to get rid of the predicament: "Countries ruled by the Communist Party really can't turn over, they are very depressed. Everyone is not very happy, and there is no smile on their faces."
News (5)
CPTPP meeting in Canada on 27 November 2024 to discuss China and Taiwan's membership
The annual meeting of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be held in Canada on 27 November 2024, and the issue of China and Taiwan's membership will become another wave of political wrestling.
News (6) to (10) / Editor: Fang Xun / Source: Voice of America / https://www.aboluowang.com/2024/1126/2135510.html / Image : Protesters held white paper and chanted slogans in Beijing on November 27, 2022, opposing the government's zero-covid policy. (AP file photo)
News (6)
Everything will turn into its opposite when it reaches its extreme! Chinese people "find a new way" to fight
—Two years after the White Paper Movement, Chinese dissidents: Social action needs to “find a new way" to fight
Taipei— China’s “White Paper Movement” has reached two years. At the end of November 2022, a protest to commemorate the victims of a residential building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, linked up more than 200 college students in China, holding up blank papers to protest the epidemic lockdown policy. This wave of demonstrations, known as the “White Paper Movement”, swept across 21 provinces in China, marking the end of the Chinese government’s three-year dynamic zero-covid policy.
Two years later, the Chinese government is more wary of mass gatherings and free discourse, but in the official stability maintenance network, people are still looking for opportunities to speak out in the gaps.
News (7)
The Chinese people continue to look for opportunities to speak out in the gaps
Ms. Luo, a Chinese dissident in Hunan who did not want to reveal her full name for security reasons, said in an interview with VOA that China’s political environment has become increasingly bad in the past two years. She has tried to avoid the use of social media. Many human rights activists close to her have been arrested by the authorities for accepting media interviews. Now social actions will come more from young students.
Ms. Luo believes that no matter how strict the official control of the Chinese Communist Party is, it is not impenetrable. There is still space for the people to speak out, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to mobilize, and the channels of communication will become more secretive. Social action needs to "find another way." She pointed out that Chinese communication software can't do anything at all, so many students use encryption software to bypass the firewall to see external information. There are many students and they are scattered all over the place. She believes that this helps to cause "incidents that the official is caught off guard."
"People of our generation are being watched too closely and can't do anything at all. There are a large number of students, and many of them are not on their (security) list. In the future, I will be more secretive and help more students. After all, they lack experience. I can do my best to connect the upper and lower levels and play a connecting role," Ms. Luo told VOA.
Ms. Luo said that the party-state pays special attention to her contacts, including college students who have contacted them. Without exception, they have been taken to the police for questioning. Therefore, as a senior in rights protection actions, it is necessary not only to maintain contact with young people, but also to ensure their personal safety as much as possible.
Ms. Luo said frankly that the college students' actions in the past two years were not all influenced by the White Paper Movement. Because of the official information blockade, many people actually did not know about the existence of the White Paper Movement. She said that today's social actions are more due to "social and political pressures exploding" and "people's fear of social development has reached the extreme, and the official cannot stop it when it reaches the critical point."
Ms. Luo believes that "when there are too many people, it will become uncontrollable", so any mass gathering will provoke the sensitive nerves of the CCP officials, so the government continues to strengthen social governance, including Mao fans, little pinks and retired soldiers as part of social control, and the government has experienced the epidemic, and the control methods are quite sophisticated, once something happens, it will be closed.
News (8)
Overseas democracy activists: The CCP is afraid of public gatherings
Jie Lijian, a democracy activist in Los Angeles and executive director of the China Democratic Party, launched a "Two-year Support for the White Paper Movement" march in Pasadena, California on November 24. In an interview with Voice of America, he pointed out that the White Paper Movement continues to be spread, imitated, and used, allowing the Chinese to understand that people's joint resistance is an opportunity to gain hope.
He believes that the power of the people to unite and fight together, the centralized regime of the Communist Party of China seems to be an iron wall and unbreakable, but in fact it will also be afraid to give in, change its policies, and compromise with the people.
As China's Internet censorship becomes more and more stringent, the "Internet ID card" drafted by the Cyberspace Administration of China has entered the period of soliciting opinions in July. Jie Lijian pointed out that the channels for civil voices are constantly shrinking, and the communication of rights activists at home and abroad has become more diverse and more secretive. Some have turned to game servers, some have obtained information through over-the-top firewalls and encryption software, and even used homophones, typos or symbols in text messages to bypass the filtering mechanism of sensitive words.
Jie Lijian emphasized that "extremes will inevitably reverse". From Peng Lifa of Sitong Bridge to the fire in Urumqi, people realized that "they might become the next victim". Because they were "fed up", they evolved into the White Paper Movement. The young people who participated were the "white paper generation" with active thinking, culture, and independent opinions, and they were dissatisfied with politics and future prospects.
The power of the White Paper Movement has been extended to other social actions in the past two years, including the "White Hair Movement" in February 2023, a demonstration by retired seniors against medical insurance reform, the "Fireworks Revolution" in 2023, which broke the ban on fireworks and firecrackers, and the "Night Ride Kaifeng Action" that started at Zhengzhou University in November.
"Many aspects are cooperating or using flexible resistance methods to say no to Beijing. This kind of social appeal, suddenly saying something will be like this wind blowing, and suddenly all over the country will follow suit. This is what the CCP fears the most, because if this march turns into a protest, it (spreads) very quickly," said Jie Lijian.
Therefore, more than 200,000 college students participated in the "Night Ride Kaifeng". Even though students waved the five-star red flag and shouted slogans of patriotism and love for the party, some students also displayed flags such as "Freedom is Fearless" and "Freedom! I'm here to ride horses!" The attitude of the CCP official media, which initially supported cycling and praised young people, was elevated to a political level after the crowds gathered, and quickly closed roads and schools to cool down the situation.
On the other hand, Jie Lijian also pointed out that since the second half of 2024, China's Ministry of State Security has significantly increased its control over overseas human rights activists, including more intensive "fishing" by Internet police, and more detectives or undercover agents infiltrating overseas Chinese communities and hometown associations, actively gaining the trust of overseas democratic organizations, attempting to disrupt organizational activities or block connections at home and abroad, all showing China's fear of the rights movement.
News (9)
"Decentralized" Chinese social movements cannot be prevented
Kevin Slaten, head of the China Dissident Monitor of the American human rights organization Freedom House, said in an interview with Voice of America that the Chinese government has continuously optimized Internet censorship and other oppression mechanisms, and has carried out censorship actions many times, such as the "clear" action on short videos from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, but Chinese citizens continue to take risks to protest in public places. "Dissident Monitor" began recording Chinese protests before the White Paper Movement in June 2022, and has recorded 7,500 protest cases so far, showing an increasing trend.
Kevin Scissor told VOA: "There are still some links between individual protests. Although the purpose of the party-state's stability maintenance system is to atomize protesters, protesters in one place will observe or use the symbols of other protesters, such as his slogans or demands, to form a decentralized protest movement."
The anti-lockdown protest movement and the White Paper Movement that lasted for several months in 2022 are well-known examples. It is difficult for the party-state to effectively prevent decentralized social movements because it has no leaders, organizers or direct coordination.
News (10)
937 protests from July to September 2024 so far in CCP China, 174 cases of homeowners fighting for property management rights
According to the latest survey of Yiyan.com, there were 937 protests from July to September 2024, an increase of 27% over the same period in 2023. Analysis shows that the economic downturn has led to an increase in protests by consumers and investors.
In addition, such as the real-name reporting movement, especially after the Tangshan Bao barbecue restaurant beating incident in 2022, many protesters began to apply the symbols of real-name reporting (providing evidence, shouting "I report in real name", etc.) to the protest. Yiyan.com has so far collected 88 online protests with real-name reporting symbols.
In addition, Kevin Smith believes that the current community democratization (owners against property tyranny) is also a new type of movement. As the government tends to regard property management companies as the front line of social management, the tension between owners and property management has intensified. In the third quarter of 2024, there were 174 cases of homeowners fighting back against improper and overstepping behavior of property management companies.
However, Kevin Smith believes that compared with traditional social movements in civil society in free countries, "decentralized movements" in authoritarian countries have some disadvantages, such as it is more difficult to mobilize continuously or effectively formulate demands, because there is no core organization group, and there is no representative to negotiate with the powerful.
Chinese citizens still have ways to force the CCP regime to change its policies
He believes that the advantages of "decentralized movements" are still worth observing. Kevin Smith believes that in a one-party dictatorship system that specializes in suppressing social movements, citizens still have ways to force the government to change its policies through bottom-up people's power and refute the CCP's overly simplistic argument that "Chinese people are obedient and obedient to authoritarianism."
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