Freedom House US Report Shows The CCP As The Number One Culprit Of Transnational Repression

China jails 6 for up to 11 years in case of chain woman. The epidemic has entered a severe stage, and documents from the CDC Guangzhou are pouring out a proposal to temporarily suspend classes. Chinese nationals flood US southern border amid CCP espionage concerns. PLA sails aircraft carrier near Taiwan following Tsai McCarthy meeting. China to inspect ships in Taiwan Strait, Taiwan says won't cooperate. Freedom House US report shows the CCP as the number one culprit of transnational repression. It's all covered in today's China Truths. China jails 6 for up to 11 years in case of chain woman. A Chinese court has jailed 6 people for up to 11 years for the abuse of a woman whose appearance last year in an online video chained by the neck sparked a public outcry and calls for the better protection of women. The video, which surfaced in January last year, showed the woman in an apparently confused state in the eastern province of Jiangsu. It was seen by millions, stirring debate about the treatment of women and in particular the trafficking of brides in rural areas. A man called Dong Jimin had bought the woman for 5,000 yuan — $727.26 — and had kept her chained up in a room without sun, electricity, and running water since 2017, the Jiangsu Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court said in a statement on Friday. Dong was jailed for nine years on Thursday for abuse and illegal imprisonment, the court said. The woman, who suffered from schizophrenia, had been sold twice before ending up with Dong. She had eight children during her time with Dong from 1999 to 2020, the court said. Another five people who bought and sold her were jailed for 8 to 11 years for trafficking women, the court said. The epidemic has entered a severe stage, and documents from the CDC Guangzhou are pouring out a proposal to temporarily suspend classes. Guangdong has reached the peak of the so-called flu epidemic, topping the hot search list. Leaked documents from the CDC recommend school closures. Xiao Qiang from Guangdong Media reports. On April 6, the topic Guangdong has entered a new peak of H1N1 flu epidemic topped the hot search list on Weibo. According to news reports, the number of flu cases in many areas of Guangdong continues to rise. Rong Rong, director of the Department of Medicine at the South China Sea People's Hospital in Foshan, Guangdong, stated. Hu Yan, deputy chief physician of the respiratory department at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, stated. On April 4, a list of proposed school suspension for outbreaks of influenza-like illness issued by the Haichao District Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Guangzhou, dated April 3, 2023, was circulated on the Internet among primary schools, junior high schools, kindergartens, and some suspended classes. According to Guangdong Media spokesperson Xiao Qiang, experts have stated that children, the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, pregnant women, or obese individuals are at higher risk of severe complications after contracting influenza. If there is an increase in heart rate, especially accompanied by convulsions, shivering, or whole-body chills, timely medical attention should be sought. Experts also assess that the current peak of influenza A outbreak has not yet declined. Chinese nationals flood U.S. southern border amid CCP espionage concerns. In the wake of China abandoning its strict zero-COVID policy, U.S. border officials have recorded a surge of Chinese immigrants crossing the southern border this year. Between October 1, 2022, and the end of February this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered nearly 3,000 Chinese nationals. This represents a more than 700 percent spike from the same period in 2022. A second analysis by Axios put that number at more than 4,000 for 2023. In February alone, there were 1,368 encounters with illegal Chinese immigrants. By contrast, U.S. border agents recorded just 55 encounters during the same month in 2022. Analysts say the deepening income gap in China combined with the Chinese Communist Party's CCP draconian pandemic lockdowns is driving the surge in migration. The ominous arrival of a new wave of Chinese illegal immigrants occurs against the backdrop of an ongoing battle against CCP agent espionage on American soil. Since 2019, U.S. universities have become ground zero for spy activities involving CCP actors. Reports of espionage and the unlawful exchange of information have been linked to at least five U.S. colleges across Texas, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Illinois in the past four years. In October 2022, U.S. prosecutors charged 13 Chinese nationals for attempting to unlawfully exert influence in the United States on behalf of the CCP. No country poses a greater, more severe or long-term threat to our national security and economic prosperity than China, FBI agent Joseph Bonavolante told reporters after a Texas professor was accused of spying for the benefit of the CCP. He added, China's communist government's goal, simply put, is to replace the United States as the world's superpower. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican, Texas, introduced legislation to stop Chinese spies and American education with the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act as a counter maneuver, saying, China is the single greatest geopolitical threat facing the United States, and the CCP is a profoundly malign influence. Arriving in the wake of U.S. universities' spy attacks was the notorious spy balloon event earlier this year. On February 4th, U.S. military officials shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon over the coast of South Carolina. That was the same month Chinese illegal immigrant encounters at the U.S. southern border soared more than 900 percent. Better Options Illegal migration is not the optimal method for spies to get in because it's risky, and, attracts more scrutiny, Irina Zuckerman, security analyst and founder of Scarab Rising, told The Epoch Times. Zuckerman says illegal immigrants aren't ideal for collecting the type of intelligence the CCP wants due to a high probability of legal entanglement and apprehension by border officials. She says it's Chinese nationals who arrive with legitimate U.S. visas who are the ones to watch. Legal migrants with ties to the home country, who are more likely to come back for visits, are better targets for intelligence recruitment, particularly if they have positions in universities, research labs, or companies where they may acquire influence or information desired by Beijing, Zuckerman said. Though she believes the wave of Chinese migrants heading for the U.S. southern border is problematic just the same. Just the beginning? Motives aside, it appears the mass migration of Chinese nationals toward the U.S. border isn't slowing down anytime soon. In the first 60 days of this year, Panama border officials reported 2,200 illegal Chinese immigrants entering the country and heading north from the treacherous Darien Gap, a broad swath of jungle defining the border with Colombia that's part of the migrant caravan route. Some have cited the CCP's pandemic response and the subsequent economic fallout as the impetus for the spike in Chinese nationals migrating overseas. The damage to the Chinese economy compared to four or five years ago is just so devastating for low-skilled workers, Liang Zhai, a U.S. sociology professor who also studies Chinese migration, told Axios reporters. Others can't bear to live another day in the shadow of the CCP's COVID-19 lockdowns, which prompted Shanghai residents to scream for release in a haunting cacophony during an April confinement episode last April. But Zuckerman said it's important to remember, not everyone fleeing is doing so due to political repression. Though she said Beijing's politics have definitely triggered the new wave of migration, pandemic policies, as well as the increasingly inward-looking political and economic restructuring, have had a significant impact on China's economy. Min Huanan agreed with this sentiment. Political tensions and crackdowns on dissent within China may have prompted some individuals to seek asylum or refuge in the United States. PLA sails aircraft carrier near Taiwan following Tsai McCarthy meeting. The mainland Chinese regime issued a rebuke of the April 5 meeting between Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican California, promising strong and resolute measures to the high-profile meeting that reflects deepening cooperation between Washington and the self-governing island that Beijing claims sovereignty over. On the day of the meeting, which took place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, PLA, sent a naval sortie consisting of the Type 002 Shandong aircraft carrier, a Type 054A Zhongkai-2 frigate, and a supply vessel through the Bashi Strait, which separates Taiwan island from the Philippines. The information was reported by the Japanese Ministry of Defense on April 6, Thursday. The ROC Ministry of National Defense stated that as the Shandong and its support ships patrolled near Taiwan, American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz sailed about 400 nautical miles east of the island. Taiwan, with a population of about 23 million, is officially governed as the Republic of China, ROC, which ran all of China before losing the civil war to the Communists in 1949 and being forced to retreat from the mainland. In 1971, the UN expelled the ROC from its membership and recognized Communist China instead, resulting in most countries maintaining only informal relations with Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party, CCP, condemns any diplomatic or political moves towards what it considers Taiwan independence, including high-profile meetings between ROC and foreign officials. Beijing sees reunification of Taiwan under Communist rule as a top priority. On Thursday, the mainland's foreign ministry issued a statement criticizing the U.S. for greenlighting that Si McCarthy meeting, calling it an act that seriously infringes upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity in support of Taiwan independence separatists' political activities. The PLA routinely sends combat aircraft and naval vessels to intimidate Taiwan and tire its air force, especially during incidents that press on the CCP's red lines. These actions and Beijing's complaints about Taiwan's activities have become a trope. Russian netizens have satirically used the phrase Chinese final warning to describe a threat one is unable or unwilling to follow through on. Launched in 2017, the Shandong is China's second aircraft carrier. The PLA Navy fields three carriers and is rapidly expanding its force of destroyers and smaller vessels. China to inspect ships in Taiwan Strait, Taiwan says won't cooperate. China's Fujian Maritime Safety Administration launched a three-day special joint patrol and inspection operation in the central and northern parts of the Taiwan Strait that includes moves to board ships, it said on its WeChat account. The move comes amid heightened tensions between China and Taiwan, with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosting Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior U.S. figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil in decades. The Maritime Safety Authority in the southeastern Chinese province said on Wednesday the operation included on-site inspections on direct cargo ships and construction vessels on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to ensure the safety of vessel navigation and ensure the safe and orderly operation of key projects on water. Taiwan's Transport Ministry's Maritime and Ports Bureau said in a statement late Wednesday said it has lodged a strong protest with China about the move. It said it has notified relevant shipping operators that if they encounter such requests from China they should refuse them and immediately notify Taiwan's Coast Guard to render assistance. If the mainland side insists on taking one-sided actions, it will create obstacles to normal exchanges between the two sides. We will be forced to take corresponding measures, it added, without giving details. Areas covered by the operation include the Pingtan-Taiwan direct container route, the Small Three Links Passenger Route, the Taiwan Strait Vessel Customary Route, the densely navigable areas of commercial and fishing vessels, and areas with frequent illegal sand mining activities. The Small Three Links Passenger Route refers to boat routes between Taiwan's Kinmen and Matsu Islands which sit opposite China and Chinese cities. The fleet, a joint special operation with East China Sea Rescue Bureau and the East China Sea Navigation Support Center, will continue to carry out cruise inspections in the central and northern parts of the Taiwan Strait over the next two days. Freedom House US report shows the CCP as the number one culprit of transnational repression. Freedom House, a democracy research organization based in Washington, has released a report this week titled Still Not Safe, Global Repression in 2022. The report reveals that governments around the world are employing tactics of cross-border repression such as deportation, unlawful detention, and physical and digital threats to silence the voices of dissenters living beyond their borders. According to Freedom House's database, China is the country of origin for 30 percent of all recorded cases of cross-border repression, the report states. In this report on cross-border repression, Freedom House has documented 854 cases of direct cross-border repression carried out by 38 governments in 91 countries worldwide since 2014. The largest perpetrators of cross-border repression continue to be the governments of China, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, and Tajikistan, the report states. However, an increasing number of governments, from Djibouti to Bangladesh, are using violence and harassment to suppress critics living abroad and evade international as well as domestic accountability. The report states that both the UK and the US are increasing efforts to protect individuals from transnational repression. The UK government has recently established a Special Forces for Democracy to counter threats from abroad, including transnational repression. The US government has submitted criminal charges against perpetrators and has foreign diplomats against harassing individuals for their human rights activities. Legislators in the US have also introduced laws to criminalize acts of transnational repression. The report recommends that governments, civil society organizations, and technology companies can take action to enhance accountability, provide protection measures for refugees and diaspora, and limit the ability of countries to carry out transnational repression. The report provides several recommendations for host governments, such as establishing an official definition of transnational repression, carefully considering extradition requests, and targeted sanctions against those involved in transnational repression. The report also calls on civil society organizations to continue documenting cases of transnational repression and developing support programs for affected individuals, while encouraging technology companies to enhance options for documenting cases of transnational repression on digital platforms and develop company-wide strategies to address the issue. 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