World News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32772873

Archived

Here is the original Reuters report.

More than one hundred Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian military against Ukraine are mercenaries who do not appear to have a direct link to China's government, [according to reports].

But Chinese military officers have, with Beijing's approval, been touring close to Russia's frontlines to draw lessons and tactics from the war. The officers "are absolutely there under approval," [a former Western intelligence official] said.

China has for years provided Moscow with material support to help aid its war against Ukraine, primarily in the shipment of dual-use products – components needed to maintain weapons such as drones and tanks.

Beijing has also supplied Russia with lethal drones to use on the battlefield. In October, the Biden administration sanctioned for the first time two Chinese companies for providing the weapons systems to Moscow.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32657170

The rest of the West can no longer rely on the United States. The European Union, Japan, Britain, Canada and others need to reduce their dependency on Washington while not becoming reliant on China. That means weaning themselves off the dollar, boosting cooperation in trade and defence, and reaching out to emerging economies such as India.

[...]

The more ambitious the rest of the West is in boosting cooperation among itself and with emerging economies, the lower the risk that it will have to depend on China. Australia has already turned down an offer from the People's Republic to join forces against the United States. Japan, South Korea, India and many ASEAN countries also feel threatened by Beijing. Europe is exposed indirectly because the People’s Republic is the main backer of Russia, which has invaded Ukraine.

Beijing will also be looking for new markets for its products now that the U.S. has put 145% tariffs on Chinese imports. Other countries can defend their industries by imposing anti-dumping tariffs. But it would be wise to be selective. For example, it could make sense to buy large quantities of Chinese rare earth minerals now that Beijing has severely curtailed their export to the United States. Europe and Japan could also scoop up Chinese solar panels to fast-track the roll-out of renewable energy and reduce their dependency on American gas.

Developed countries may be able to cooperate with China on issues such as climate change, which Trump has said is a hoax. But they will still need to keep their distance on many topics. Cutting dependency on both Washington and Beijing at the same time will take time and be costly. But the rest of the West could regret it if they do not.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32430092

Archived

[...]

"There are 155 Chinese citizens who are fighting against Ukrainians on the territory of Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this information to journalists on April 9.

"We are collecting information, we believe that there are many more."

"For these 155 there is passport data, where they are from, their Chinese documents, age, etc," Zelensky added.

According to Zelensky, Chinese soldiers had been serving with Russia's 70th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, the 255th Rifle Division, and others.

A day before, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the capture of two Chinese citizens fighting for Russia in eastern Donetsk Oblast. The group of six Chinese nationals clashed with Ukrainian forces, and two are now being held by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), he said.

The documents, obtained by the Kyiv Independent, list the names, personal data, place of service and position in the Russian army of other Chinese nationals.

[...]

One of the captured soldiers claimed he paid 300,000 rubles (roughly $3,000) to a middleman in China to join the Russian military in exchange for the promise of citizenship, Ukraine's Luhansk military unit press service told Ukrainian Pravda earlier in the day.

"Beijing knows about this. Russians distribute advertising videos about recruitment through Chinese social networks," Zelensky said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32317880

The Chinese authorities should urgently quash the conviction and free the Taiwan publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀), known by his pen name Fu Cha (富察), Human Rights Watch said today. Fu Cha, who has been detained in China since 2023, was secretly sentenced in February 2025 to three years in prison on charges of “inciting secession.” The government has provided little information about his trial or his condition in detention.

Fu Cha, 54, is editor-in-chief of the Taiwanese firm Gūsa Publishing, which has published translated works on global affairs, politics, and history, including some critical of the Chinese government.

[...]

“The Chinese authorities have imprisoned Fu Cha for daring to publish books on China that they don’t like,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “The groundless case against Fu Cha is an apparent attempt to muffle freedom of expression outside its borders and intimidate Taiwan’s vibrant publishing industry.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1504698

Well, as Comrade Zelda might say:

Good.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1476626

Seems a close-associate of Sheldon Adelson might head the operation of whatever this is, according to an Al Jazeera investigation.

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But it should not be up to a foreign television program to investigate secret Israeli intelligence and covert operations in the US, along with their clandestine American funders. That is what the FBI is paid to do. And rather than drag university presidents up to Capitol Hill for a replay of the Red Scare/HUAC hearings, it’s time for the White House and Congress to at last rip the cover off Israel’s vast network of spies, collaborators, and funders in this country. Even if it means giving up millions in donations and political support from AIPAC—the key reason Israel remains immune from any investigation.

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Give the article a look-see or a skim-through or whatever, at least; it's worth the read.

Offensive vs. Defensive Nationalism

This conflict shows a harmful confusion, among the Russians and their supporters, between the state as a nation in the ethnic sense and the state as an administrative entity.

A state that wants to base its legitimacy on cultural unity must be small; it is otherwise doomed to meet the hostility of others. A Francophone Swiss citizen, although culturally linked to his or her language, does not aspire to belong to France, and France does not try to invade French-speaking Switzerland under this pretext. Further, national identities can change quickly: Francophone Belgians have a different identity from French people. France itself went through an operation of internal colonialism to destroy Provençal, Languedoc, Picard, Savoyard, Breton, and other cultures and eradicate their languages under a centralized identity. Nationality is never defined and never fixed; administration is.

Cultural unity can make sense, but only in the form of something reduced such as a city-state –I would even go so far as to say that a state only works well in this way. In this case, nationalism is defensive — Catalan, Basque or Christian Lebanese — but in the case of a large state like Russia, nationalism becomes offensive. Notice that under the Pax Romana or the Pax Ottomana, there were no large states, but city-states gathered in an empire whose role was distant. But there is loose empire and rigid nation-state like empire, the latter being represented by Russia .

. . .

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1469378

Yes, let's have it, finally, so we can better dismantle Zionism.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1463907

Jamal Rich's articles are great and never miss.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1463201

We've learned nothing from Palestine, Ohio.

Archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20231222185134/https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221128897/masha-gessen-essay-israel-gaza-germany-hannah-arendt-prize

Prominent Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen received a prestigious award for political thought over the weekend, in a ceremony that almost didn't happen due to backlash over their recent writings on Israel-Gaza.

Israel's air-and-ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 20,000 people in the 10 weeks since the Hamas-led attack on Israel killed some 1,200 people and took more than 240 others hostage.

Gessen, who is Jewish and whose family lost loved ones in the Holocaust, has been criticized for a New Yorker essay published earlier this month in which they likened the Gaza Strip to the WWII-era ghettos that Nazis developed to segregate and control Jewish people in occupied Europe.

Gessen argues in the essay that treating the Holocaust as a "singular event," unlike anything that has occurred before or after in history, not only is incorrect but makes it impossible to learn lessons from the Holocaust that are needed to prevent future genocides.

. . .

World leaders, international rights groups and United Nations officials have criticised the United States for vetoing a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and failing to halt the war that has killed more than 17,400 Palestinians and about 1,100 people in Israel since October 7.

A UN resolution on the pause in hostilities failed to pass on Friday at the UN Security Council after the United States vetoed the proposal and Britain abstained.

The remaining 13 of the 15 current members of the UNSC voted in favour of the resolution put forward by the United Arab Emirates and co-sponsored by 100 other countries.

Here are some of the reactions:

Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US’s veto made it “complicit” in war crimes in Gaza. “The president has described the American position as aggressive and immoral, a flagrant violation of all humanitarian principles and values, and holds the United States responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and elderly people in the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said.

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the veto was “a disgrace and another blank cheque given to the occupying state to massacre, destroy and displace”.

Palestine’s UN envoy Riyad Mansour told the UNSC that the result of the vote was “disastrous”. “If you are against the destruction and displacement of the Palestinian people you must stand against this war. And if you support it then you are enabling this destruction and displacement regardless of your intentions … Millions of Palestinian lives hang in the balance. Every single one of them is sacred, worth saving.”

Hamas strongly condemned the US veto, saying it considers Washington’s move “unethical and inhumane”. “The US obstruction of the issuance of a ceasefire resolution is a direct participation with the occupation in killing our people and committing more massacres and ethnic cleansing,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement.

. . .

Kernow

Last weekend, Ally was kicked out of a family Shabbat dinner. Ally is 21 years old and from New York.

"My dad is a staunch Zionist. He said, 'You better not f*ing have gone to that protest.' "

Ally has gone to many protests.

"He was like, 'I don't want to have you in my house right now. You are not welcome at this dinner table,' " Ally said.

Ally, who requested anonymity due to ongoing harassment, has family in Israel. Some are currently in the Israel Defense Forces.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began, there have been protests demanding a cease-fire. Many Jewish Americans have joined in. Some say they've been met with hostility from within their own communities. Ally is a student at Columbia University, and is part of Jewish Voice For Peace, which is vocally demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

What Ally wants, beyond a cease-fire, is to address the human rights violations Palestinians have endured over the years.

"My position as a Jew is that it [has] always been our responsibility, according to our religion, to stand up for all those who are targeted, all those who are oppressed, all those who are facing violence. Because as a people, we've been persecuted for so long."

Rabbi Ari-Lev Fornari, also with Jewish Voice for Peace, says lately, he's been hearing about a lot of arguments like the one at Ally's Shabbat dinner table.

. . .

In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 7, the Palestinian resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip launched an unprecedented surprise multi-prong attack on Israel, including firing a barrage of rockets toward Israeli territory while simultaneously carrying out a ground offensive into nearby Israeli towns which breached the Israeli Gaza barrier and overwhelmed surrounding Israeli military posts.

As of 12:30 local time, it was reported that thousands of rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel and that Israeli air forces had targeted multiple areas across the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Medical authorities in Gaza report that over 190 Palestinians had been killed and over 1,600 were injured so far. Israeli emergency services report at least 100 Israeli casualties, and dozens of other unconfirmed reports indicate the casualties to be much higher. According to Al Jazeera, 57 Israelis, including military personnel, have allegedly been captured and taken into Gaza.