Laura Harth

Exclusive | China tells EU it does not want to see Russia lose its war in Ukraine: sources Wang Yi speaks of concern that US could shift whole focus in China’s direction in talks with top EU diplomat Beijing.

Admitting the obvious: “Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday that Beijing does not want to see a Russian loss in Ukraine.”
www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

#HongKong: 4 years after #AppleDaily was shut down, its spirit lives on. RSF and exiled staff have published a special edition honouring media in Hong Kong that continue to resist repression. 7 staff remain jailed and face life imprisonment, including founder #JimmyLai.

🔗 rsf.org/en/four-year...

RSF condemns rise in attacks on UK-based Iranian journalists and their families in Iran Persian-language broadcasters based in London have reported an alarming escalation in threats against their journalists, including intimidation of their families in Iran. Reporters Without Borders (RS...

RSF is alarmed by reports that the parents of a UK-based journalist working for Iran International have been detained in Tehran and coerced into urging their daughter to resign. This marks a further escalation in #Iran's efforts to silence Persian-language media overseas.
rsf.org/en/rsf-conde...

What better sign of Apple Daily's enduring power than to see our revival edition being read in the #UK houses of parliament today, by MPs and peers of all political parties. The spirit of Apple Daily lives on! #HongKong #AppleDailyLivesOn #FreeJimmyLai

From Canada’s CSIS 2024 public report: “With one of the world’s largest & most active security intelligence systems, PRC poses the greatest counter-intelligence threat. […] PRC Intelligence Services actively and clandestinely target democratic states around the world.”
www.canada.ca/en/security-...

G7 Leaders’ Statement on Transnational Repression (TNR) - Canada, June 17, 2025

‼️G7 Leaders commit to counter Transnational Repression, “an aggressive form of foreign interference that undermines national security, state sovereignty, the safety and human rights of victims, and principles of international law.”

Full Statement: www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

📍8964: New Safeguard Defenders report coming June 4.

📍8964: 保护卫士 新的报告将于6月4日发布。

(Media can request an embargoed copy at - 媒体可通过以下邮箱申请获取禁运版报告: media [at] safeguarddefenders [dot] com)

COMING SOON: #ChinaTargets.

ICIJ’s latest investigation uncovers the sprawling scope and terrifying tactics of Beijing’s campaign to target dissident members of its diaspora.

Stay tuned! Sign up to get the stories delivered to your inbox: bit.ly/3SCsH8c

China Is Ready to Blockade Taiwan. Here’s How. China’s military, in increasingly complex exercises, have encircled Taiwan and simulated blockades.

China is still developing its capacity to invade Taiwan, but analysts say it is now able to carry out a blockade or quarantine. @joyuwang.bsky.social and I take a look at how that might unfold

Gift link: www.wsj.com/world/china/...

Quote of the Day: “Food Is Unsafe, Students' Lives Are Unsafe, Our Data Is Unsafe, but MoFA Says China Is One of the 'Safest' Countries in the World!" This year, the theme of World Consumer Rights Day on March 15 was “a just transition to sustainable lifestyles.” As it has every year since 1991, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV marked the occasion wit...

Quote of the Day: “Food Is Unsafe, Students' Lives Are Unsafe, Our Data Is Unsafe, but MoFA Says China Is One of the 'Safest' Countries in the World!"

Ukraine war live: Russia launches deadly drone attack on Kyiv ahead of ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia US and Ukrainian officials to meet in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, ahead of US-Russia talks on Monday Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. At least three people were killed, including a five-year-old child, after Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials. Continue reading...

Ukraine war live: Russia launches deadly drone attack on Kyiv ahead of ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia

US think tank says China using criminal organizations to sabotage Taiwan-Palau ties | Taiwan News | Mar. 2, 2025 10:49 Pacific Economics urges Palau to bolster economic resilience and deepen democratic cooperation | Mar. 2, 2025 10:49

🇵🇼 China is using transnational criminal organisations to advance its political objectives in Palau and weaken Taiwan’s diplomatic ties with the Pacific island nation. www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/6049334

Surveillance and missing children: a rare glimpse inside forgotten Tibet A documentary shows the depths Beijing will plunge to subsume the people whose land it annexed 75 years ago. One of its producers reveals what the team found

Surveillance and missing children: a rare glimpse inside forgotten Tibet

A documentary shows the depths Beijing will plunge to subsume the people whose land it annexed 75 years ago. One of its producers reveals what the team found. (ITV1, 10:20pm tonight) www.thetimes.com/world/asia/a...

Data-Centric Authoritarianism: How China’s Development of Frontier Technologies Could Globalize Repression - NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY A new report authored by Valentin Weber review four key data-centric technologies whose development could fortify Beijing’s tech-enabled authoritarian governance model and offers seven critical steps ...

A new report by @weberv.bsky.social reviews 4 key data-centric technologies whose development could fortify Beijing’s tech-enabled authoritarian governance model and offers 7 critical steps democracies & civil society must take to ensure a more democratic digital future. www.ned.org/data-centric...

Italy's regulator blocks Chinese AI app DeepSeek on data protection Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data.

Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data.

www.reuters.com/technology/a...

Posing as @safeguarddefenders.bsky.social, for the first time a Chinese social media operation that aims to whip up political anger in the West has explicitly called for the overthrow of a foreign government (in Spain), @graphika.com reports.
www.reuters.com/world/chines...

Taiwan blacklists Chinese-owned ‘shadow fleet’ ships Taipei’s move reflects concern Beijing could use vessels that evade international oversight against it

Taiwan has drawn up a blacklist of 52 Chinese-owned ships that use flags of convenience, which it will track and proactively inspect in an effort to regulate part of a rapidly growing “shadow fleet” that is causing global security concerns. www.ft.com/content/bb6b...

For the Chinese Communist Party sovereignty is not limited to safeguarding territory. It is also about protecting the regime at home and abroad (“active defense”, 积极防御). This is why it struggles against democracies using the united front, economic coercion and propaganda.

China Maritime Report No. 44: Dirty But Preparing to Fight: VADM Li Pengcheng's Downfall Amid Increasing PLAN Readiness Main Findings Although corruption runs deep in the PLA Navy (PLAN) and across China’s armed forces, disciplinary-related removals appear not to have a major impact on naval capabilities or operation...

In China's military..."When one leader is purged, another is on deck. Politicized corruption investigations and their imposition of costs are fundamentally a speed-bump rather than a showstopper" digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cmsi-maritim...

Australian jailed in Beijing for four years shares his harrowing ordeal It was just after Christmas in 2019,  and Australian Matthew Radalj was 34 and running a streetwear business in Beijing when he went to get his phone repaired at a popular electronics market.

An Australian businessman has accused the local embassy in China of ignoring his pleas for help as he languished in filthy, overcrowded Beijing jails for four years. www.skynews.com.au/insights-and...

An outrage that even China’s supine media has called out Anger is growing over a form of detention linked to torture and deaths

Black jails and angry wails: anger is growing over forms of detention linked to torture and deaths that have become increasingly common under Xi Jinping.

It often involves holding people incommunicado for weeks on end in brutal conditions without charge.
www.economist.com/china/2025/0...

Europe’s ‘China crisis’ looms as continent’s export gravy train stalls As the EU’s auto industry reels from a slowing Chinese economy and cutthroat competition, analysts caution the worst is yet to come.

China crisis looms as Europe’s gravy train stalls: ‘nobody is making money’

A long read from me on Germany, trillion-dollar deficits, and the China shock 2.0

Feat. @sandertordoir.bsky.social @cfr.org @adamtooze.bsky.social, @ceias-eu.bsky.social, @niclaskv.bsky.social

www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

Chinese national charged with acting as Beijing's agent in local California election A Chinese national has been charged with acting as an illegal agent for Beijing when serving as the campaign manager for an unnamed local California politician.

A Chinese national was arrested Thursday on charges of acting as an illegal agent for #Beijing when serving as the campaign manager for an unnamed politician elected to a city council in Southern California two years ago.

apnews.com/article/chin...

New York Resident Pleads Guilty to Operating Secret Police Station of the Chinese Government in Lower Manhattan

Defendant Admitted That He Conspired to Act as an Illegal Agent of the Chinese Government
www.justice.gov/opa/pr/new-y...

Guilty plea expected in secret Chinese police station case Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping were accused of working on behalf of China's Ministry of Public Security in violation of the Espionage Act.

“A guilty plea is expected today in the case of a secret Chinese police station operating in lower Manhattan.

Prosecutors said the secret police station was set up by PRC counterintelligence operatives to harass and intimidate dissidents living in US.”
abcnews.go.com/US/guilty-pl...

My latest: Australia signed two multi-million dollar deals with Nauru and Papua New Guinea last week that analysts say will help Canberra counter #China’s growing influence in the Pacific.

www.voanews.com/amp/australi...

In #China, this lawyer is detained for advocating his client's legal rights. The independence of lawyers under assault.

Lawyer Zhang Wenpeng's lawyer reported that Mr. Zhang has been shackled and wearing heavy leg chains since Dec 4, which broke the skin and the wounds have festered. #Torture

Exclusive | China is recruiting embassy staff with a focus on electric vehicles, source says Hundreds of candidates said to have sat exam testing their knowledge of Communist Party ideology and the EV sector.

China is recruiting embassy staff with a focus on EVs

Hundreds of candidates sat an exam in Beijing as part of recruitment process for new science & technology counsellors

Fluent in English, overseas educated, they were tested on understanding of CCP ideology and EV sector

sc.mp/53oo4?utm_so...

FBI warns some lawmakers that China aims to create fake stories about them to erode support for Taiwan The FBI has provided classified, “defensive” briefings to lawmakers targeted by the Chinese Communist Party with false stories about taking bribes from Taiwan, two U.S. officials told NBC News.

The FBI has provided classified, “defensive” briefings to lawmakers targeted by the Chinese Communist Party with false stories about taking bribes from Taiwan, two U.S. officials told NBC News. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Breaking: European Commission launches a formal investigation into TikTok for its alleged role in violating the integrity of the recent Romanian election.