crush the people, their culture, their freedom, their independence

3-31-19    At Kyrgyz National University’s Russian and Slavic Philology Department, where many of the Kyrgyz students from Xinjiang were enrolled as undergraduates and studied Russian as a foreign language, the main exodus seems to have taken place during the winter break of 2017 to 2018. Copies of expulsion orders provided by the department confirm that at least 20 ethnic Kyrgyz students from China were expelled in the following spring and summer for such official reasons as “failure to meet the requirements of the course of study” and “failure to pay tuition”—both resulting from their inability to return to Kyrgyzstan. When asked why the students chose to go to China given the political situation there, the dean of the department mentioned that some had their parents in Xinjiang who were threatened with punishment should their children remain abroad....

  According to the Xinjiang Victims Database, a recent initiative, out of the 762 victims for whom some sort of detention reason has been reported, 103 cases (13.5 percent) involved people being detained for having contact with the world outside China, and 189 cases (24.8 percent) involved people detained for having lived or traveled abroad....

  Kyrgyzstan Member of Parliament Adil Zhunus, whose brother, the historian Askar Zhunus, was taken to a camp recently, actually praised China’s policies while adding that he had no right to get involved in his brother’s case, as his brother is a Chinese citizen.  For me personally, as someone who has actively documented the situation in Xinjiang, the local authorities’ stance was made painfully clear when my visits to the universities were brought up in the Jan. 30 issue of Delo No.  The local weekly tabloid, focusing on politics, law, and crime, ran an entire one-page hit piece that accused me specifically of trying to stir up “anti-China sentiment” in Kyrgyzstan.  https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/31/963451-kyrgyz-xinjiang-students-camps/Venezuela's Constituent Assembly voted unanimously to strip self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó of immunity in a move his supporters fear may signal the impending arrest and prosecution of the opposition leader who is challenging the rule of President Nicolás Maduro.  https://www.npr.org/2019/04/02/709306132/maduro-allies-move-against-rival-juan-guaid-in-venezuela
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3-29-2019   “I join Secretary of State Pompeo's call that China must end these counterproductive policies, release all arbitrarily detained, and end its repression that is taking place,” Brownback said.  “It’s being raised in multiple forums by the United States, and consistently,” he added.  http://time.com/5561044/xinjiang-china-camps-us-residents-sam-brownback/
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  The US on Tuesday warned China against the use of force against Taiwan after Beijing sent two fighter jets across the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, an action Taipei criticized as “provocative.”

  “The United States opposes unilateral actions by any party that are aimed at altering the status quo, including anything related to force or coercion,” US Department of State spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters.  “Beijing should stop its coercive efforts and resume dialogue with the democratically elected administration” in Taipei.  http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2019/04/04/2003712768

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4-3-19  The Trump administration has blocked the Navy and Pentagon from sending U.S. warships to China to take part in a People's Liberation Army (PLA) naval celebration, according to administration officials.

The PLA invited the United States to dispatch warships and senior Navy officers to take part in the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist navy, a major Beijing propaganda event set for later this month.https://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-to-snub-pla-navy-anniversary/

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