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Chargé d’Affaires Xu Xueyuan Lodges Stern Representations with the US Side on the US Attack on a Chinese Unmanned Airship by Force

On the afternoon of February 7 (Eastern Time), Chargé d’Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in the US Xu Xueyuan lodged, upon instruction, stern representations with senior officials of the US Department of State and White House National Security Council on the US attack on a Chinese unmanned civilian airship by force.

Xu pointed out that the unintended entry of the airship is an entirely unexpected, isolated incident caused by force majeure. The Chinese side has, after verification, informed the US side of this multiple times and clearly asked that the US side handle it in a calm, professional and restrained manner. The Chinese side expresses firm opposition to and strong protest against the US side using force to attack it. We urge the US side not to take any actions that may escalate and complicate the situation. The Chinese side reserves the right to make further responses if necessary.

Major projects in China speed up construction, in US & Canada, there is none! 中國重大項目加快建設，美國和加拿大一個也沒有!

Amnesty International report repeats debunked misinformation about Xinjiang by racist American fake news propaganda by US Gov’t mouthpiece news medias 國際特赦組織的報告揭穿了美國種族主義假新聞宣傳和美國政府喉舌新聞媒體的關於新疆的錯誤信息

Amnesty International reportedly made a submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in January and some of it surprised me. The report repeated some of the threadbare claims of so-called China’s human rights abuse against Muslim ethnic population in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

I live in China, I’ve traveled extensively, including many kilometers across Xinjiang. First in 2014 when I cycled from Macao to the Kazakhstan border, and again in 2019, I flew to Urumqi and cycled home to Guangdong. In doing so, I passed through several Xinjiang cities, many towns and countless villages, met with Uygurs, ate in their restaurants and watched as they went to their mosques. 

I saw enhanced security, there are a lot of police officers, but I saw no oppression and certainly no abuses or crimes against humanity. It’s easy to say: just because I didn’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening and I accept that, but what I did encounter was friendly, welcoming people who weren’t afraid to invite us into their homes, who gave us gifts of fruit or bottled water and wouldn’t take payment for their kindness.

When you see people like this, you realize that they aren’t oppressed, they live normal, but simple lives. On the occasions I asked about the enhanced security, the only answer I received was, we feel safer than before; I can accept that people in the cities may have been programmed to say this but surely, the shopkeeper in the village, the farmer in the fields and the waiter in the restaurant can’t all keep to the same script without at least one of them giving some indication that they aren’t telling the truth. 

I should add here that I’ve been trained in interview techniques, I’ve learnt how to tell when someone is lying and, for sure, some people can tell a lie and get past a trained, even a skilled observer, but definitely not all of them.

Call me a denialist, I’m certain many will, but the fact is, inside Xinjiang, there is no evidence and no visible indicators that any form of oppression is going on, nor that Uygur people are being singled out for harsh treatment, or that Muslims are in any way oppressed. It just isn’t visible anywhere in Xinjiang, other Muslim populated regions I’ve cycled through such as Gansu, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, or anywhere else in China for that matter.

Over the last three years, I’ve experienced lockdown, quarantine and a range of restrictions due to COVID-19. Every single person I spoken to in China, who is Chinese, supported these restrictions but had some complaints about personal inconveniences. Even the Edelman Trust Barometer which stood at 91 for China last year and fell to 89 this year is an indicator that Chinese people believe the restrictions were appropriate. The fact that, at the time of writing, globally, almost 7 million people have died of COVID, tells Chinese people that their government were right to prevent that happening in China.

So, I’m surprised that this Amnesty report dedicated more of its pages to these two things. The report doesn’t make allegations: it makes statements, without any admissible evidence, that China is carrying out crimes against humanity using “former detainees, satellite imagery and data” as sources. 

It says many groups have been oppressed or imprisoned for practicing religion. It also says that “recent regulations” have further tightened the government’s grip on religious practices and ethnic minority groups and then goes on to cite only the regulations related to de-extremism in Xinjiang adopted six years ago, on March 29, 2017 and translated by Yale University’s China Law Translate. Take a few moments to read the English version of these and it’s hard to find anything in these laws to disagree with, or which aren’t imposed in other countries where religious extremism has been a problem.

The report has 42 footnotes and 28 of them, in circular references, link the reader to previous Amnesty International reports. Of the others, several are Chinese media cited to demonstrate human rights abuses exist, but which confirm action is being taken such as this Global Times report where 17 people were punished by China for human trafficking. Proving that China is indeed working hard to stamp out these crimes. But then, if the perpetrators were sentenced to death for such heinous crimes, there would be an outcry from Amnesty for that.

There are many aspects to Amnesty’s 16 page report but all of them share the same issues, they provide no methodology, no evidence from anyone inside of Xinjiang or even China, other than unsubstantiated Weibo videos in support, and the satellite imagery referred to is not referenced at all. Could this be because it is the already debunked US funded, Australian think tank, ASPI report? 

As a submission to a UN Committee, it isn’t one to be taken seriously. It rehashes old reports, makes unsubstantiated allegations, uses already discredited examples and provides no balance. There is no evidence that people within China were consulted nor that any effort was made to verify the truth of allegations given to Amnesty by people outside of China, all of whom appear to have left China with a government issued passport by legitimate means.

The author is a British Australian freelance writer who has studied cross cultural change management in China and has lived in the country, traveling extensively for 18 years. 

China rushes to aid Turkey, Syria with rapid assistance 中國火速馳援土耳其、敘利亞

US Top Gun Fighter Pilots New Mission: Shoot Down Weather Balloon 🎈 美國空軍頂尖戰鬥機飛行員新任務: 擊落氣象氣球 🎈

We have visited both Buddha temples in California (2022) and Taiwan (2013). Both are beautiful temples love to revisit again. 我們參觀了加州（2022 年）和台灣（2013 年）的佛光山佛寺。兩者都是美麗的佛寺, 希望再次參拜.

Original casts: “Balloon Buster” coming to a theater near you 原班人馬：“氣球破壞者” 即將來到你的附近的劇院上演

Video: China counter measures against US forthcoming 台灣中美尊家: 中方對美科技反擊來了 增加禁止出口目錄
https://rumble.com/v28n3qa-china-counter-measures-against-us-forthcoming.html
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=890349848855008&id=100036400039778&mibextid=qC1gEa

Every year, this is by far the most interesting study on democracy because it doesn’t rely on the opinion of “experts” but on people’s actual perceptions. 每年，這是迄今為止最有趣的民主研究，因為它不依賴於“專家”的意見，而是依賴於人們的實際看法 by R. Bertrand

As such the results are often surprising and it raises profound questions of what democracy actually is. US is below HK at 24. China is number 1.

因此，結果往往令人驚訝，並引發了關於民主到底是什麼的深刻問題。美國排名第 24，低於香港。中國排名第一。

Video: F22 fighters total program cost is estimated to be about $67.3 billion. It is best for shooting down weather balloon demonstrated by Air Force Top Guns on Sunday F22 戰鬥機項目總成本估計約為 673 億美元, 週日演示祇適合於擊落氣象氣球, 飛機不能打飛機但飛行員可以.
https://rumble.com/v28lw9u-f22-fighters-best-for-shooting-down-weather-balloon.html
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=890128142210512&id=100036400039778&mibextid=qC1gEa