thelucky8

Nearly two thousand Georgian businesses have signed a petition calling for new elections, and more are expected to join as the political crisis fueled by Georgian Dream’s foreign policy U-turn and police repression continues to disrupt the economy.

Over 1,800 companies, including leading supermarket chains such as SPAR, local branches of Big Four accounting firms such as EY, PwC, and KPMG, communications and transport giants such as MagtiCom, and other top brands, are registered on the Free Business online platform. The platform was launched in December as discontent over Georgian Dream’s foreign policy moves and repression peaked.

[...]

Some companies have taken a different route to show solidarity with the ongoing protests. Georgia’s two major commercial banks, TBC Bank and the Bank of Georgia, announced on December 19 that they had jointly allocated GEL 5 million (USD 1.8 million) to support citizens and small and micro-businesses affected by the ongoing events.

[...]

The moves come as nationwide protests enter their fourth week and businesses, artists, and other citizens face financial disruptions, including numerous cancellations of Christmas/New Year’s events as the year draws to a close. Various solidarity funds have been set up to help those who have incurred damages due to the crisis.

These include a fund set up by ex-Prime Minister Nika Gilauri to support those injured or fined during protests and civil servants dismissed for political reasons. The University of Georgia has also set up a fund to support civil servants who quit or were fired because of their political views, and there is a strike fund run by the Gildia, the trade union for cultural and media workers, to help gig workers. Other initiatives, such as the fund run by journalist Nanuka Zhorzholiani, have been operating since the spring protests against the Foreign Agents Law.

[...]

Archived link

Opinionated article by Alexander Hanff, a computer scientist and privacy technologist who helped develop Europe's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and ePrivacy rules.

We cannot allow Big Tech to continue to ignore our fundamental human rights. Had such an approach been taken 25 years ago in relation to privacy and data protection, arguably we would not have the situation we have to today, where some platforms routinely ignore their legal obligations at the detriment of society.

Legislators did not understand the impact of weak laws or weak enforcement 25 years ago, but we have enough hindsight now to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes moving forward. The time to regulate unlawful AI training is now, and we must learn from mistakes past to ensure that we provide effective deterrents and consequences to such ubiquitous law breaking in the future.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17711104

Archived link

Serbia has been engulfed in protests for over six weeks as students and citizens demand accountability following the fatal collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad, which claimed 15 lives on November 1. Demonstrators have accused President Aleksandar Vucic’s administration of corruption and negligence, particularly in its dealings with Chinese contractors under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The tragedy has turned public attention toward the opaque contracts and alleged nepotism tied to infrastructure projects involving Chinese firms, further intensifying scrutiny of Serbia’s growing relationship with China. The incident is not only a domestic crisis but also a potential blemish on China’s ambitious BRI.

Fatal Canopy Collapse Sparks Nationwide Protests

The canopy collapse occurred during a renovation of the Novi Sad railway station, part of a Chinese-led project to modernize Serbia’s railway infrastructure. The project involved China Railway International Co. (CRIC) and China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC), both of which denied direct involvement in constructing the canopy. Despite these claims, footage on social media suggests the collapse was caused by recently installed heavy glass.

[...]

President Vucic dismissed the protests as being fueled by foreign intelligence agencies aiming to destabilize his government. However, under mounting pressure, he agreed to meet some of the protesters’ demands. Transparency Serbia, a watchdog organization, criticized the government’s response, highlighting gaps in the documentation released, including the absence of the 2018 contract signed with the Chinese firms.

[...]

The Novi Sad railway renovation forms part of a broader agreement between Serbia and China under the BRI. These BRI agreements often include confidentiality clauses, which critics argue shield corrupt practices. The contracts are rarely open to competitive bidding, enabling subcontracts to be awarded to firms linked to Serbia’s ruling party.

While CRIC and CCCC maintain they did not directly construct the canopy, legal experts argue that as umbrella contractors, they are responsible for the performance of their subcontractors. This raises broader concerns about the quality and safety of BRI projects, particularly those involving local subcontractors.

[...]

Serbia’s strategic location as a bridge between Europe and Asia has made it a linchpin of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship BRI. Chinese investments in Serbia have surged, with $6.4 billion in manufacturing foreign direct investments recorded in 2023 alone. In October, the two countries signed a free trade agreement, further cementing their economic ties.

However, Western critics have long decried BRI projects for their lack of transparency and accountability. The Novi Sad disaster could amplify these criticisms, undermining China’s efforts to promote its infrastructure projects in Europe.

[...]

Archived link

Serbia has been engulfed in protests for over six weeks as students and citizens demand accountability following the fatal collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad, which claimed 15 lives on November 1. Demonstrators have accused President Aleksandar Vucic’s administration of corruption and negligence, particularly in its dealings with Chinese contractors under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The tragedy has turned public attention toward the opaque contracts and alleged nepotism tied to infrastructure projects involving Chinese firms, further intensifying scrutiny of Serbia’s growing relationship with China. The incident is not only a domestic crisis but also a potential blemish on China’s ambitious BRI.

Fatal Canopy Collapse Sparks Nationwide Protests

The canopy collapse occurred during a renovation of the Novi Sad railway station, part of a Chinese-led project to modernize Serbia’s railway infrastructure. The project involved China Railway International Co. (CRIC) and China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC), both of which denied direct involvement in constructing the canopy. Despite these claims, footage on social media suggests the collapse was caused by recently installed heavy glass.

[...]

President Vucic dismissed the protests as being fueled by foreign intelligence agencies aiming to destabilize his government. However, under mounting pressure, he agreed to meet some of the protesters’ demands. Transparency Serbia, a watchdog organization, criticized the government’s response, highlighting gaps in the documentation released, including the absence of the 2018 contract signed with the Chinese firms.

[...]

The Novi Sad railway renovation forms part of a broader agreement between Serbia and China under the BRI. These BRI agreements often include confidentiality clauses, which critics argue shield corrupt practices. The contracts are rarely open to competitive bidding, enabling subcontracts to be awarded to firms linked to Serbia’s ruling party.

While CRIC and CCCC maintain they did not directly construct the canopy, legal experts argue that as umbrella contractors, they are responsible for the performance of their subcontractors. This raises broader concerns about the quality and safety of BRI projects, particularly those involving local subcontractors.

[...]

Serbia’s strategic location as a bridge between Europe and Asia has made it a linchpin of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship BRI. Chinese investments in Serbia have surged, with $6.4 billion in manufacturing foreign direct investments recorded in 2023 alone. In October, the two countries signed a free trade agreement, further cementing their economic ties.

However, Western critics have long decried BRI projects for their lack of transparency and accountability. The Novi Sad disaster could amplify these criticisms, undermining China’s efforts to promote its infrastructure projects in Europe.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17710409

Archived link

Hundreds of Tibetans protesting against a Chinese dam were rounded up in a harsh crackdown earlier this year, with some beaten and seriously injured, the BBC has learnt from sources and verified footage.

Such protests are extremely rare in Tibet, which China has tightly controlled since it annexed the region in the 1950s. That they still happened highlights China's controversial push to build dams in what has long been a sensitive area.

Claims of the arrests and beatings began trickling out shortly after the events in February. In the following days authorities further tightened restrictions, making it difficult for anyone to verify the story, especially journalists who cannot freely travel to Tibet.

But the BBC has spent months tracking down Tibetan sources whose family and friends were detained and beaten. BBC Verify has also examined satellite imagery and verified leaked videos which show mass protests and monks begging the authorities for mercy.

The sources live outside of China and are not associated with activist groups. But they did not wish to be named for safety reasons.

[...]

The protests, followed by the crackdown, took place in a territory home to Tibetans in Sichuan province. For years, Chinese authorities have been planning to build the massive Gangtuo dam and hydropower plant, also known as Kamtok in Tibetan, in the valley straddling the Dege (Derge) and Jiangda (Jomda) counties.

Once built, the dam's reservoir would submerge an area that is culturally and religiously significant to Tibetans, and home to several villages and ancient monasteries containing sacred relics.

One of them, the 700-year-old Wangdui (Wontoe) Monastery, has particular historical value as its walls feature rare Buddhist murals.

The Gangtuo dam would also displace thousands of Tibetans. The BBC has seen what appears to be a public tender document for the relocation of 4,287 residents to make way for the dam.

[...]

China is no stranger to controversy when it comes to dams.

When the government constructed the world's biggest dam in the 90s - the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River - it saw protests and criticism over its handling of relocation and compensation for thousands of villagers.

In more recent years, as China has accelerated its pivot from coal to clean energy sources, such moves have become especially sensitive in Tibetan territories.

Beijing has been eyeing the steep valleys and mighty rivers here, in the rural west, to build mega-dams and hydropower stations that can sustain China's electricity-hungry eastern metropolises. President Xi Jinping has personally pushed for this, a policy called "xidiandongsong", or "sending western electricity eastwards".

[...]

The Chinese government has long been accused of violating Tibetans' rights. Activists say the dams are the latest example of Beijing's exploitation of Tibetans and their land.

"What we are seeing is the accelerated destruction of Tibetan religious, cultural and linguistic heritage," said Tenzin Choekyi, a researcher with rights group Tibet Watch. "This is the 'high-quality development' and 'ecological civilisation' that the Chinese government is implementing in Tibet."

One key issue is China's relocation policy that evicts Tibetans from their homes to make way for development - it is what drove the protests by villagers and monks living near the Gangtuo dam. More than 930,000 rural Tibetans are estimated to have been relocated since 2000, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

[...]

Multiple Tibetan rights groups [...] argue that any large-scale development in Tibetan territory, including dams such as Gangtuo, should be halted.

They have staged protests overseas and called for an international moratorium, arguing that companies participating in such projects would be "allowing the Chinese government to profit from the occupation and oppression of Tibetans".

[...]

Archived link

Hundreds of Tibetans protesting against a Chinese dam were rounded up in a harsh crackdown earlier this year, with some beaten and seriously injured, the BBC has learnt from sources and verified footage.

Such protests are extremely rare in Tibet, which China has tightly controlled since it annexed the region in the 1950s. That they still happened highlights China's controversial push to build dams in what has long been a sensitive area.

Claims of the arrests and beatings began trickling out shortly after the events in February. In the following days authorities further tightened restrictions, making it difficult for anyone to verify the story, especially journalists who cannot freely travel to Tibet.

But the BBC has spent months tracking down Tibetan sources whose family and friends were detained and beaten. BBC Verify has also examined satellite imagery and verified leaked videos which show mass protests and monks begging the authorities for mercy.

The sources live outside of China and are not associated with activist groups. But they did not wish to be named for safety reasons.

[...]

The protests, followed by the crackdown, took place in a territory home to Tibetans in Sichuan province. For years, Chinese authorities have been planning to build the massive Gangtuo dam and hydropower plant, also known as Kamtok in Tibetan, in the valley straddling the Dege (Derge) and Jiangda (Jomda) counties.

Once built, the dam's reservoir would submerge an area that is culturally and religiously significant to Tibetans, and home to several villages and ancient monasteries containing sacred relics.

One of them, the 700-year-old Wangdui (Wontoe) Monastery, has particular historical value as its walls feature rare Buddhist murals.

The Gangtuo dam would also displace thousands of Tibetans. The BBC has seen what appears to be a public tender document for the relocation of 4,287 residents to make way for the dam.

[...]

China is no stranger to controversy when it comes to dams.

When the government constructed the world's biggest dam in the 90s - the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River - it saw protests and criticism over its handling of relocation and compensation for thousands of villagers.

In more recent years, as China has accelerated its pivot from coal to clean energy sources, such moves have become especially sensitive in Tibetan territories.

Beijing has been eyeing the steep valleys and mighty rivers here, in the rural west, to build mega-dams and hydropower stations that can sustain China's electricity-hungry eastern metropolises. President Xi Jinping has personally pushed for this, a policy called "xidiandongsong", or "sending western electricity eastwards".

[...]

The Chinese government has long been accused of violating Tibetans' rights. Activists say the dams are the latest example of Beijing's exploitation of Tibetans and their land.

"What we are seeing is the accelerated destruction of Tibetan religious, cultural and linguistic heritage," said Tenzin Choekyi, a researcher with rights group Tibet Watch. "This is the 'high-quality development' and 'ecological civilisation' that the Chinese government is implementing in Tibet."

One key issue is China's relocation policy that evicts Tibetans from their homes to make way for development - it is what drove the protests by villagers and monks living near the Gangtuo dam. More than 930,000 rural Tibetans are estimated to have been relocated since 2000, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

[...]

Multiple Tibetan rights groups [...] argue that any large-scale development in Tibetan territory, including dams such as Gangtuo, should be halted.

They have staged protests overseas and called for an international moratorium, arguing that companies participating in such projects would be "allowing the Chinese government to profit from the occupation and oppression of Tibetans".

[...]

Temu hat mehr als 45 Millionen Nutzerinnen und Nutzer monatlich in Europa. Doch Lobbyarbeit gegenüber der Politik gibt die chinesische Handelsplattform nicht an. Obwohl der Konzern mittlerweile durch den Digital Services Act (DSA) der EU reguliert wird. Wie passt das zusammen?

Offenbar verfolgt der Techkonzern eine Strategie, die er bereits auf dem US-Markt erfolgreich angewandt hat: sich Politik, Behörden, Steuern und Regeln so lange wie möglich zu entziehen und dabei maximalen Profit herrauszuschlagen. Ziel von Temu ist es, die Präsenz in Europa auszubauen, Regeln spielen für den Tech-Konzern dabei keine Rolle.

[...]

Produziert werden die Produkte ausschließlich in China, die Endproduktion findet in der Regeln nahe bei Flughäfen statt, sodass die Produkte möglichst schnell um die Welt geflogen werden können. Die Qualität der angebotenen Produkte steht zunehmend in der Kritik durch Verbraucherschutzorganisationen. Die Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband äußerte sich zunehmend besorgt über die Produktsicherheit bei Temu. Temu steht deswegen zu Recht in Europa und in Deutschland verstärkt in der Kritik.

[...]

Trotz seines Expansionskurs in Europa ist der Konzern schlecht erreichbar. Zunächst fällt auf, dass Temu weder Lobbybüros unterhält noch irgendwelche anderen Lobbytätigkeiten in Berlin und Brüssel in den jeweiligen Transparenzregistern angibt. Das gilt auch für den Mutterkonzern PDD Holdings und den an der Holding mit 15 Prozent beteiligten Tencent Konzern aus China. Tencent macht zwar Angaben in den Lobbyregistern in Berlin und Brüssel. Nichts deutet jedoch darauf hin, dass der Konzern neben seinem eigenen Geschäft auch für Temu Lobbyarbeit betreibt. Auch die Firma Whaleco Technology Limited, unter der Temu in Europa angemeldet ist, weist keine Lobbyarbeit in der EU auf. Auf mehrfache Anfrage zu Aktivitäten in Deutschland von LobbyControl reagierte Temu bedauerlicherweise nicht.

[...]

Eine brisante Spur führt jedoch nach Irland. In Irlands Haupstadt Dublin sitzt Whaleco, das eben erwähnte Unternehmen, das hinter Temu in Europa steckt. Der Firmensitz ist kein Zufall. Im Niedrigsteuerland Irland zahlt der Konzern nur halb so viele Steuern wie in Deutschland, wo die Plattform aber eigentlich deutlich mehr Produkte absetzt. Auch die meisten großen US-Techkonzerne, wie Meta oder Apple, machen sich das EU-Steuerparadies zunutze und haben deshalb ihren europäischen Sitz in Irland.

[...]

Temus Dreistigkeit braucht Grenzen

Es zeichnet sich bei Temu ein Muster ab: Der Konzern entzieht sich Behörden und Politik so weit und so lange er kann. Durch die Abwesenheit an Lobbyist:innen in Berlin, Brüssel und Dublin, gibt es keine unmittelbaren Ansprechpartner vor Ort für die Politik. Durch den Firmensitz in Irland, der nur aus einem kleinen Büro besteht, ist selbst dort nur ein eingeschränkter Kontakt möglich. Und durch den Cargotransport mit dem Flugzeug gelingt es Temu oft die Zollbehörden zu umgehen.

Der Fall Temu macht deutlich, dass Europa ein Problem mit der Durchsetzung seiner Gesetze hat. Weder die Qualität der Waren noch die Zollkontrollen hat Brüssel bei dem chinesischen Techkonzern im Griff – mit negativen Folgen für Verbraucher:innen und europäische Unternehmen, die sich selbst an Regeln halten und unter dem Preisdruck von Temu leiden. Temu kann mit Billigwaren von teilweise zweifelhafter Qualität den europäischen Markt überfluten.

[...]

Mit ihrem alternativen Verhältnis zu Wahrheit, Toleranz und Humanität fährt die AfD Wahlerfolge ein. Ihr Klientel nutzt kaum noch klassische Medien zur Information, sondern Social Media. Dank deren Algorithmen verbreiten sich Falschinformationen und Hetze in Filterblasen und setzen sich fest. Facebook, X oder Telegram machen es vor. TikTok aber ist der Meister der Skrupellosigkeit. In der Europäischen Union nutzen 142 Millionen Menschen TikTok, also fast jeder Dritte.

Die russische und die chinesische Regierung nehmen mit Desinformationstruppen Einfluss auf das, was auf TikTok ausgesendet und konsumiert wird. TikTok wird von Extremisten zur Verbreitung ihres Gedankenguts verwendet und trägt so zur Radikalisierung der politischen Debatte bei. Diese Form der Kommunikation ist ein großes Risiko für unsere Demokratie.

[...]

Etablierte Politiker als schlechte Vorbilder

Um TikTok nicht den Rechten zu überlassen, meinen Politiker, mit ihrer dortigen Präsenz der AfD und deren Propaganda etwas entgegensetzen zu können. Gesundheitsminister Karl Lauterbach machte den Anfang. Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz und seine Aktentasche folgten (@TeamBundeskanzler). Selbst Robert Habeck und seine Grünen wollen über TikTok einen Meinungswandel herbeiführen.

Habeck auf TikTok verblüfft besonders, hatte er doch 2019 Twitter und Facebook vorläufig wegen Hass, Falschinformationen und unsicherer Datenverarbeitung verlassen. Inzwischen ist es auch dorthin zurückgekehrt.

Deutsche Sicherheitsbehörden, insbesondere die Verfassungsschutzämter, sehen diese Aktivitäten kritisch, ebenso die Datenschutzbehörden. Bußgelder auf europäischer Ebene gegen TikTok haben offenbar keinen Einfluss auf die Nutzung in Deutschland. TikTok behauptet fälschlich, sich an die europäische Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) zu halten. Die Regeln zum Kinderschutz werden nicht beachtet. Valide Rechtsgrundlagen für die Verarbeitung bestehen nicht. Weder die uninformierten Einwilligungen noch Vertragskonstrukte, geschweige denn ein „berechtigtes Interesse“ können die Verarbeitung durch TikTok legitimieren. Schon gar nicht die Verarbeitung sensitiver Daten, etwa in Bezug auf politische Meinungen.

[...]

Das Verbot politischer Werbung, zu dem sich TikTok selbst bekennt, wird regelmäßig missachtet. Von „Privacy by Design“ und „Privacy by Default“ kann keine Rede sein. Bei Sicherheitsfeatures wie etwa der Kennzeichnung von Videos mit drastischen Bildern, gefährlichen Stunts und KI-generiertem Inhalt bestehen Defizite. Filteroptionen für unerwünschte oder schädliche Inhalte fehlen.

[...]

Meinungsfreiheit ist kein Gegenargument. Äußerungen auf einer platten Plattform wie TikTok sind zweifellos grundrechtlich geschützt. Das entbindet aber Medium und Autoren nicht davon, die allgemeinen Gesetze zu beachten. Was für Lokalzeitungen, Spiegel, ARD oder RTL gilt, gilt auch für Social Media generell und TikTok speziell. Es gibt keine Regel, wonach die Reichweite eines Mediums dessen Zulässigkeit bestimmt.

[...]

Archived

Here is the report (pdf) -- (archived)

Oasis Security's research team uncovered a critical vulnerability in Microsoft's Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) implementation, allowing attackers to bypass it and gain unauthorized access to the user’s account, including Outlook emails, OneDrive files, Teams chats, Azure Cloud, and more. Microsoft has more than 400 million paid Office 365 seats, making the consequences of this vulnerability far-reaching.

The bypass was simple: it took around an hour to execute, required no user interaction and did not generate any notification or provide the account holder with any indication of trouble.

[Edit to insert the original link to the Oasis site.]

Archived

The bloc’s diplomatic service, as well as some member states, are examining whether judicial decisions would be needed as a legal basis to seize the frozen assets, or if a damage calculation would be enough, said the people, who asked for anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

[...]

A decision to confiscate the money and hand it over to Ukraine would be a significant departure from the current approach. [...] Up to now, the EU and the Group of Seven nations have tapped the profits generated by some $300 billion in sanctioned Russian assets to provide aid to Ukraine. Under a G-7 plan, Kyiv’s allies approved a mechanism where the profits would be used to underpin a €50 billion ($52.5 billion) loan package for Kyiv.

[Confiscation of foreign assets, let alone of that size, would be unprecedented in history. While central bank reserves have been frozen many times -e.g., the United States are still holding the reserves of Iraq and Afghanistan, yet technically they remain the property of these countries. Central bank reserves of another country have never been confiscated before.]

[...]

Some EU member states are currently evaluating what effect such a move would have on the euro as a currency, the people said. They’re also assessing the potential impact of third countries deciding to withdraw assets from countries that proceed with seizures.

[...]

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s new foreign policy chief who runs its diplomatic service, said during her confirmation hearing last month that frozen assets should be tapped directly. “I will not use the word confiscation, because it’s really using the assets in a legal way,” she said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17662074

Ever wonder where all those high officials in China keep disappearing to?

They are but few of a whopping 26,000 individuals placed into the Chinese Communist Party’s notorious Liuzhi system in 2023 alone. Liuzhi, or retention in custody, is a special “investigative mechanism” that allows the [Chinese Communist] Party’s [CCP] internal police force (Central Commission for Discipline Inspection – CCDI) to forcefully disappear, arbitrarily detain and torture individuals for up to six months. All without any judicial oversight or appeal mechanism, the system is specifically designed to force confessions from the victims.

As former CCDI lead Liu Jianchao (since promoted to head of the International Liaison Department) put it: “These are not criminal or judicial arrests and they are more effective”.

A successor to Shuanggui, the system is another of the many hardening reforms since Xi Jinping assumed the helm of the CCP and rapidly started moving the country even further away from the most basic human rights standards to which it is beholden under international law.

[...]

Officially instituted under the National Supervision Law in 2018, liuzhi is rapidly catching up with other mechanisms of enforced disappearances in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Its use now appears to be on par with the use of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), instituted in 2014 and most often employed against human rights defenders.

[...]

Per regulation, any individual placed inside the system must be held in solitary confinement. The vast majority of victims are kept from any type of communication with the outside world and their family members are not informed of their whereabouts (or even the retention itself) as the system makes use of undisclosed (designated) locations, from custom-built facilities to CCP-run hotels, guesthouses, offices, etc. By any definition, it is a system of Party-state sanctioned incommunicado detention.

[...]

The reasoning behind it all is very simple: to break the victims down. As a Professor at Peking University explained: [These cases are] “heavily dependent on the suspect’s confession. (...) If he (the suspect) remains silent under the advice of a lawyer, it would be very hard to crack the case”.

Testimonies from inside liuzhi (or its predecessor shuanggui) are rare, but all agree: "It looks very nice. But it is the worst place in the world." - Jean Zou, a shuanggui victim.

“The rooms mostly looked normal, with all the expected facilities — bathroom, tables, sofa, she said in an interview. The only sign of the room’s true purpose was the soft rubber walls. They were installed because too many officials had previously tried to commit suicide by banging their heads against the wall” – description of a facility in Shanghai by Lin Zhe, professor at the Central Party School.

[...]

In January 2024, for the first time since the system’s formal inauguration, the CCDI published official data on its use: no less than 26,000 individuals had been placed inside the system in 2023 alone!

That is an average of 71 people being forcefully disappeared, arbitrarily detained and subjected to torture in liuzhi alone… Every. Single. Day.

The scary part: the 2023 number corresponds exactly to the worst-case high estimates [the rights group] Safeguard Defenders had made for previous years, based on partially available data from provincial Discipline Inspection Committees and punishment statistics.

[...]

Ever wonder where all those high officials in China keep disappearing to?

They are but few of a whopping 26,000 individuals placed into the Chinese Communist Party’s notorious Liuzhi system in 2023 alone. Liuzhi, or retention in custody, is a special “investigative mechanism” that allows the [Chinese Communist] Party’s [CCP] internal police force (Central Commission for Discipline Inspection – CCDI) to forcefully disappear, arbitrarily detain and torture individuals for up to six months. All without any judicial oversight or appeal mechanism, the system is specifically designed to force confessions from the victims.

As former CCDI lead Liu Jianchao (since promoted to head of the International Liaison Department) put it: “These are not criminal or judicial arrests and they are more effective”.

A successor to Shuanggui, the system is another of the many hardening reforms since Xi Jinping assumed the helm of the CCP and rapidly started moving the country even further away from the most basic human rights standards to which it is beholden under international law.

[...]

Officially instituted under the National Supervision Law in 2018, liuzhi is rapidly catching up with other mechanisms of enforced disappearances in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Its use now appears to be on par with the use of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), instituted in 2014 and most often employed against human rights defenders.

[...]

Per regulation, any individual placed inside the system must be held in solitary confinement. The vast majority of victims are kept from any type of communication with the outside world and their family members are not informed of their whereabouts (or even the retention itself) as the system makes use of undisclosed (designated) locations, from custom-built facilities to CCP-run hotels, guesthouses, offices, etc. By any definition, it is a system of Party-state sanctioned incommunicado detention.

[...]

The reasoning behind it all is very simple: to break the victims down. As a Professor at Peking University explained: [These cases are] “heavily dependent on the suspect’s confession. (...) If he (the suspect) remains silent under the advice of a lawyer, it would be very hard to crack the case”.

Testimonies from inside liuzhi (or its predecessor shuanggui) are rare, but all agree: "It looks very nice. But it is the worst place in the world." - Jean Zou, a shuanggui victim.

“The rooms mostly looked normal, with all the expected facilities — bathroom, tables, sofa, she said in an interview. The only sign of the room’s true purpose was the soft rubber walls. They were installed because too many officials had previously tried to commit suicide by banging their heads against the wall” – description of a facility in Shanghai by Lin Zhe, professor at the Central Party School.

[...]

In January 2024, for the first time since the system’s formal inauguration, the CCDI published official data on its use: no less than 26,000 individuals had been placed inside the system in 2023 alone!

That is an average of 71 people being forcefully disappeared, arbitrarily detained and subjected to torture in liuzhi alone… Every. Single. Day.

The scary part: the 2023 number corresponds exactly to the worst-case high estimates [the rights group] Safeguard Defenders had made for previous years, based on partially available data from provincial Discipline Inspection Committees and punishment statistics.

[...]