Last month, the Swedish chapter of PEN (a worldwide association of writers) gave its Tucholsky Prize to Gui Minhai, a persecuted Chinese-born book publisher. In retaliation, China seems to be preparing to impose sanctions on Sweden. Minhai is currently being detained by Beijing for criticizing the communist state. The sanctions China had warned Sweden not ...
In a bid to expand its influence in the UK, China is manipulating students and universities in the country. This is raising concerns among British lawmakers as to the presence of Chinese students and Beijing-backed institutions in the United Kingdom. Chinese meddling in the UK “At LSE (London School of Economics and Political Sciences) we ...
A report by the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee (FCO) has revealed large-scale Chinese interference in academic institutions. It criticizes the British government for failing to consider the extent of the threat and not providing enough guidance to the universities on the issue. Chinese interference “The committee highlighted the role of China-funded Confucius Institutes’ officials in ...
Russia’s ever-tightening grip on its citizens’ Internet access through censorship has troubling implications for Internet freedom in the United States and other countries that share its decentralized network structure, according to a University of Michigan study. Released a week after a sweeping, additional censorship law called Sovereign RUnet took effect in Russia, the researchers say ...
Fearful of losing its market in China, the NBA has adopted a policy not to officially say anything political that might be against Beijing’s interests. The organization is implementing these practices in the U.S., essentially censoring Americans on the issue of Hong Kong and other human rights violations of the Chinese government. Supporting Hong Kong ...
The Chinese communist government focuses heavily on developing soft power, which is basically the ability to influence outsiders to admire your culture in hopes that they will align with your decisions. At the recent World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Chinese participants tried to push hard their country’s “soft power” in front of international visitors, revealing ...
FIFA recently announced that it will be conducting the 2021 Club World Cup in China. The event will feature 24 of the best football clubs from across the globe and will be held in the months of June and July. Several human rights organizations have criticized FIFA’s decision to organize the event in a country ...
After the NBA decided to mute all mention of the Hong Kong protests to avoid angering the Chinese government, the fans seem to have decided to take matters into their own hands, as many of them have been sporting pro-Hong Kong shirts at games. An NBA team manager, Daryl Morey, had earlier tweeted in support ...
The Chinese government punishes foreigners who do anything against Beijing’s interests by banning them from the country. German DJ Zedd found out about this the hard way when he was banned by China after liking a South Park tweet by the animated Comedy Central TV show. Band in China The DJ announced the ban through ...
Senator Marco Rubio has asked the U.S. administration to investigate the Chinese social media app TikTok after reports that the company is censoring content worldwide according to Beijing’s policies. Rubio has asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is tasked with overseeing foreign acquisitions that might impact national security, to ...