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China Warns of ‘Anti-China’ Study Abroad Agencies, Tightens Control of Overseas Students

China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has reported that some overseas study agencies have been “altering student resumes” to include anti-China rhetoric in study abroad applications, posing a threat to national security. The MSS claims to have uncovered a case where an agency assisted foreign anti-China forces in infiltrating student groups by modifying application materials with “illegal content that damaged China’s image.” The MSS warned “students and parents to be cautious of study abroad opportunities being used as bait for anti-China activities.” It cited laws that classify the “fabrication or distortion of facts harmful to national security” as espionage-related offenses. The MSS release reflects the tightening control of China’s government over overseas students, possibly reflecting CCP fears of losing ideological influence over the Chinese youth as well as a reaction to growing political awareness among the middle class.

One such study abroad agency allegedly promised students a “green channel” for admission to foreign universities by “polishing” their application essays. In May, the agency and its leadership were reportedly “dealt with according to law.” Meanwhile, some have described increasingly strict procedures facing Chinese students wishing to study abroad, including political screenings and as a requirement that prospective students sign guarantees of loyalty to the Chinese government.

The MSS announcement has created a chilling effect among Chinese netizens, with some parents expressing concerns about their children being labeled as anti-China or being accused of endangering national security while studying abroad.

Source: Radio Free Asia, August 9, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/zhengzhi/hx2-chinese-security-agencies-08092024075724.html

The First Known Survivor of CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting Speaks Out in Washington, DC

Cheng Peiming, a 58-year-old Chinese man from Northeast China, is regarded as the first known survivor of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) program of forced live organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. On August 9, at a forum in Washington, D.C., he publicly shared his experience in which the Chinese authorities forcibly removed his organs twenty years ago.

Cheng stated that he was repeatedly detained and tortured by the CCP for practicing Falun Gong. In 2002 he was sentenced to eight years in prison. In July 2004, in a state of good health, he was dragged from prison to a hospital where guards tried to make him sign a form of consent for surgery. When he refused to sign, the guards knocked him down and anesthetized him. When he woke up three days later, Cheng found himself handcuffed to a bed with a 35-centimeter-long incision on his chest. In 2006, prison guards again took Cheng to a hospital. He said, “They had no reason for any surgery, so I knew I would be killed.” He managed to escape while the guards were sleeping. Cheng spent the next nine years hiding in China and managed to flee to Thailand in 2015. Four years ago, with assistance from the U.S. government, he came to America through the United Nations refugee program.

When media reports on China’s forced organ harvesting practices first emerged in 2006, Cheng realized that this was what had happened to him. It was only after arriving in the U.S. that transplant specialists confirmed through scans that part of his liver and left lung had been removed. Cheng said that he still cannot feel certain parts of his chest and struggles daily with severe pain throughout his body.

In 2019 an independent tribunal in London (“The China Tribunal”) ruled that the CCP has committed crimes against humanity through its continuous harvesting of organs from minority groups, including Falun Gong practitioners. Two years later, a United Nations human rights expert reported that, in addition to Falun Gong practitioners, other minorities, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims, and Christians detained in China, had also become targets of forced organ harvesting. In June of this year the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, aimed at compelling the CCP to end its persecution of Falun Gong and the forced harvesting of organs from detained practitioners.

Source: Radio Free Asia, August 9, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/kw8-forced-organ-harvesting-08092024135324.html

Major Scandal Unfolds: Illegal Corpse Trade and Bone Harvesting Operation Exposed in China

On August 8, Beijing attorney Yi Shenghua made an online disclosure of case materials related to the theft, insult, and intentional destruction of human corpses, triggering a media frenzy in China. The alleged company involved in such activity is Shanxi Aorui Biological Materials Co., Ltd. (Shanxi Aorui), established in 1999 as a subsidiary of the state-owned China Radiation Protection Research Institute. The company’s business scope consists of research, development, production, and sale of “allogeneic bone implantation materials.” The company is accused of illegally purchasing corpses and limbs and then engaging in brutal dissection, removal of flesh, cleaning, irradiation, etc., of these bodies and bones, to produce “allogeneic bone implantation materials” during the time period from January 2015 through July 2023. The company had a total revenue of 380 million yuan (US$ 53 million) from the period 2015 through 2023.

Allogeneic bones (from humans) are a good source of material for bone transplantation and, per established international medical standards, should come from explicit donors. Shanxi Aorui’s sources generally did not sign up to be donors, and the family members of the deceased were not aware of the Shanxi Aorui activities.

There are currently 75 criminal suspects identified; all have confessed to criminal activities consistent with the allegations against Shanxi Aorui. The business conducted operations in Chongqing City and provinces of Sichuan, Guangxi, Shandong, Guizhou, and Yunnan.

Frighteningly, the case is linked to China’s live organ transplant industry. Qingdao University Affiliated Hospital is one of the hospitals designated by the Ministry of Health for performance of liver transplants. Between 2015 and 2021, the hospital’s Associate Chief Physician Li Zhiqiang at the Liver Disease Center dismembered organ donor corpses and stored them in a freezer before selling them to Shanxi Aorui, with each corpse fetching a price between 10,000 and 22,000 yuan. Shanxi Aorui picked up five deliveries from Li. The hospital’s website listed Li as the Deputy Director of the Organ Transplant Center and Director of the Intensive Care Unit. After the incident gained attention, the hospital removed Li’s resume from its website.

Source: Epoch Times, August 8, 2024
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/24/8/8/n14307307.htm

China Plans to Issue National ID Intermediating Citizens’ Internet Access

The Chinese authorities have announced the “National Network Identity Authentication Public Service Management Measures (Draft for Comments),” jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security and the National Internet Information Office. According to the document, the “network number” (网号) is composed of letters and numbers and is linked to each person’s individual identity. The “network certificate” (网证) refers to the network authentication credential that carries the “network number.” These pieces of information, issued by authorities at the national level, can verify a natural person’s true identity when they use internet services.

Since 2017, Beijing has mandated a comprehensive real-name registration system for Chinese users of the internet. This enables the CCP to control people’s interactions online, as users are required to use their real identity when registering accounts on any major online platform. Each online platform has thus has collected users’ critical personal information. The authorities state that the recently-announced national “network number” and “network certificate” system will allow users to verify their identity using a government-issued app, meaning that individual commercial internet platforms will no longer need to be responsible for verification of users’ identities.

Although the draft specifies that the deadline for feedback is August 25, the “National Network Identity Authentication Pilot Version” app has already been launched on several mobile app stores in China. Users can now verify their identity and obtain an electronic network identity certificate with a “network number.” This pilot includes 10 government service apps and 71 internet apps, including Taobao, WeChat, and Xiaohongshu.

Critics pointed out that there is no legal basis for the government to require people to use “real name” to access Internet, and that requiring the use of a national-level identity will make it easier for authorities to completely block a person from using the internet.

Source: BBC, August 6, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-69244432

Lianhe Zaobao: China Plans to Issue Unified Internet IDs to Netizens

Singapore’s primary Chinese language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that the Chinese government plans to issue unified internet ID numbers and certificates to members of the Chinese public in order to verify the true identity of users. This raised concerns over control of speech.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese Cyberspace Administration just released a document titled “National Internet Identity Authentication Public Service Management Measures (Draft for Comments).” According to the document, the purpose of the internet ID is “to strengthen the protection of people’s personal information.”

Some scholars said that the implementation of internet identification numbers and certificates will help avoid information leakage, reduce network violence, and combat telecommunications fraud. Skeptics expressed the belief that this is yet another way for the authorities to tighten control over speech. Some netizens commented that “in the future, if the government wants to block anyone, it only needs to block an online ID to ban the user across the entire network. Isn’t it scary?”

China has fully implemented an online real-name system since 2017. There have been many suspected database leaks. Some people found that their real personal information registered with Chinese social media platforms had been leaked to the dark web.

Source: Lianhe Zaobao, July 29, 2024
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20240729-4389461

Hunan Protester Hangs Banner Calling for Democracy, Provokes National Response by CCP

On July 30, in Xinhua County, Loudi City, Hunan Province, someone identified as Fang Yirong hung a large banner from an overpass and played a loud audio recording demanding reform and democracy. The CCP was extremely alarmed by this incident. The Ministry of Public Security sent personnel to Hunan to handle the case, and “stability maintenance” efforts were increased nationwide to prevent similar incidents from occurring in other regions. There were also reports that the police had arrested the protester, a 22-year-old university student.

The audio recording said

“We want freedom, we want democracy, we want votes! Strike from work, strike from classes, and oust the dictatorial national traitor Xi Jinping.”

This was the same slogan used by Peng Lifa, who posted banners and played recordings in October 2022, sparking the widespread “blank paper” protests a month later.

The banner displayed by Fang Yirong also mirrored Peng’s original slogan, except that the first line of the banner had been altered from “No nucleic acid tests, we want food” to “No privileges, we want equality.” In its entirety, the banner read:

No privileges, we want equality!
No lockdowns, we want freedom!
No lies, we want dignity!
No Cultural Revolution, we want reform!
No leaders, we want votes!
No slaves (of the CCP), we want to be citizens!

On August 2, well-known internet user “Li Laoshi Bu Shi Ni Laoshi” (whose username translates to “Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher”) posted on the X platform identifying the protester as Fang Yirong. In the post, Li Laoshi shared a video statement that had been recorded by Fang Yirong:

“I have always been a moderate leftist. Since the fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang on November 24, 2022, I lost my last bit of hope in the CCP’s one-party dictatorship. In mid-July 2023, while planning to oppose Xi Jinping’s dictatorship, I was discovered by cyber police. I have been under continuous surveillance and was eventually subjected to house arrest and torture by the CCP authorities. During my house arrest, I tried to reconcile with the CCP. My views shifted from being anti-establishment to pro-establishment, but under intense intimidation, my views gradually reverted to being anti-establishment. I ultimately realized that there is no room for compromise with the devil. I hope you can make my story public and expose the devil’s atrocities!”

Source: Radio Free Asia, August 2, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/kw2-hunan-xi-jinping-protest-banner-08022024125456.html

China’s ‘Designated Residential Surveillance’ System: Calls for Reform Amid Controversy

Southern Weekend, a magazine based in China, reported that the “designated residential surveillance” system in China has recently come under scrutiny due to multiple deaths and allegations of torture to extract confessions. Academics and experts are calling for reform of this practice.

Originally intended as a less restrictive alternative to detention, the “designated residential surveillance” system has evolved into a more severe form of custody. It gained popularity among investigators after 2012 when stricter regulations were imposed on detention centers, making it difficult to use coercive interrogation methods there. The “designated residential surveillance” system, being less transparent and more convenient, became a preferred tool, often misused.

Bian Jianlin, honorary president of the China Criminal Procedure Law Society, argues that this system has been controversial since its inception and should be abolished. He suggests reverting to the original non-custodial nature of residential surveillance.

Several legal experts informed Southern Weekend that the revision of China’s Criminal Procedure Law is still in the consultation stage, and the future of the “designated residential surveillance” system remains undecided.

Source: Radio Free Asia, July 22, 2024
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/jw2-china-house-arreset-07222024121739.html

Chinese Investigative Journalists Expose Food Safety Scandal, Highlighting the Importance of Watchdog Reporting

An investigative report in China has exposed a dangerous practice in the food industry, where tanker trucks are used to transport both edible oils and kerosene without proper cleaning between loads. This revelation has sparked public outrage and prompted official investigations.

The report, published by Beijing News on July 2, was the result of a month-and-a-half-long undercover investigation by three journalists. It implicated major state-owned and private food oil companies, as well as chemical plants and transportation companies.

The lead investigator, Han Futao, is a veteran journalist known for his dedication to undercover reporting. His work has highlighted the importance of investigative journalism in China, with some saying that “five investigative reporters are worth 100 market regulators.”

The report has reignited public interest in investigative journalism, which has been declining in China due to worsening conditions for free speech. A 2017 report indicated that the number of investigative journalists in traditional media had decreased by 58%, with only 175 remaining at that time.

The expose has led to an outpouring of support from Chinese netizens, with many making donations to Beijing News to show their appreciation for the reporters’ courage in revealing the truth. This incident underscores the ongoing challenges faced by journalists in China and the public’s hunger for accurate, investigative reporting.

Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), July 9, 2024
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202407090354.aspx