Was a New York City cop spying for China?
The China Letter: September 24, 2020
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This officer was arrested
Baimadajie Angwang was ordered to be detained without bond while facing federal charges for allegedly spying on fellow ethnic Tibetans while working for the New York Police Department. Further research revealed he exaggerated his U.S. military history in the years after he was granted asylum—but he’d raised suspicions earlier.
Tibet’s present-day state
Tibetan rural labourers are being pushed into military-style training centres where they’re turned into factory workers, according to a report from the Jamestown Foundation, which procured documents that point to policy in Beijing. It mirrors the program in the Xinjiang province, involving Muslim Uighurs.
Along with more attention to how this forced labour was used for familiar clothing brands, which face challenges in trying to end the practice, came CNN’s confirmation of plunging birth rates in Xinjiang. But despite earlier reports of forced sterilization of women, China denies that played any role in the number of babies falling by one-third.
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Drama with a gender gap
Women turned out to have limited roles in the Chinese television series about the Wuhan coronavirus crisis, Heroes in Harm’s Way, which is out of step with the fact that they represented the majority of frontline medical workers during the lockdown. One scene has female bus drivers being reluctant to volunteer due to family commitments.
Media sends a message
Matthew Carney, the former Beijing bureau chief for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, shared the story of recent events in Beijing that included a threat of detention for his 14-year-old daughter. Two years later, Carney felt it was time to tell his story to explain how China’s actions against foreign journalists aren’t simply tit-for-tat.
Meanwhile in Canada, the latest pages of sponsored editorial content from the state-run China Daily raised eyebrows among those wondering how the Globe and Mail can be considered a credible source for stories about the country—even if the Globe has recently reported on China attempting to identify westerners to aim cyber warfare at.
The last words, for now
Gods of War—Attack! was the name of a Chinese military propaganda video uploaded to social media that quickly drew comments from those who noticed it contained footage from three Hollywood blockbusters: The Hurt Locker, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Rock. Permission was probably not obtained for their use:
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