VISUAL REPORTS:
Belgrade's Chinese Surveillance Cameras Spark Backlash
A group of NGOs has launched a website providing the public with information on a controversial mass-surveillance system that is currently being installed in Belgrade. The system will include 1,000 cameras and is being supplied by the Chinese company Huawei.
See Both Sides: Chinese Vs. Western Media Coverage Of Hong Kong Protests
RFE/RL’s Current Time network has juxtaposed Western and Chinese state-media coverage of Hong Kong protests for Russian-speaking audiences. While Western media highlight police violence used against activists protesting the proposed Hong Kong national security law, Chinese outlets say that Hong Kong citizens support the proposed legislation and that Western countries should stay out of China's internal affairs. (In Russian, Current Time TV)
KAZAKHSTAN: Police Detain Women Protesters, Place Them In Quarantine (video)
Kazakh authorities forcibly detained a group of women protesting in the capital Nur-Sultan and placed them in a hotel designated as a quarantine site. The women, from lower-income families, were demonstrating outside the Labor and Social Support Ministry on June 10 to demand increased government assistance.
INFOGRAPHIC: Who Gives The Most Aid To Serbia? (Clue, It’s Not China)
TOP NEWS:
Stoltenberg Urges NATO Unity Amid Challenges From China, Russia
In a speech on June 8 laying out his vision of NATO for 2030, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on the allies to continue to invest in their armed forces; use the alliance as the forum to act on issues affecting their shared security; and work more closely with "like-minded" partners such as Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea to "defend the global rules and institutions that have kept us safe for decades.”
China Again Declines To Join Arms-Control Talks With U.S., Russia
China has reiterated its refusal to participate in three-way disarmament talks with the United States and Russia ahead of a new round of arms-control talks between Washington and Moscow scheduled for June 22 in Vienna.
EU Says Russia, China Undermine Democracy With Coronavirus Disinformation
In a policy document released on June 10, the European Union is urging online platforms to step up the fight against a wave of online disinformation triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, accusing China and Russia of mounting propaganda campaigns to undermine democracy and burnish their own images.
Lawmakers Group Seeks Global Response to ‘Defining Challenge’ of China
Lawmakers from 18 countries have allied to create collective responses to Chinese trade, security and human rights policies, a project the politicians called the “defining challenge for the world’s democratic states” The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) consists of 18 China-skeptic lawmakers from the United States, the European Union, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Japan. (Radio Free Asia)
China Increased Detentions For ‘Extremist’ Religious Behavior in Xinjiang in 2019
Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region ramped up detentions of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Hui, and other Muslim minorities last year to implement “counterterrorism” measures that severely violated religious freedoms, the U.S. State Department said in an annual report released Wednesday. (Radio Free Asia)
Propaganda Gift Horse Bites China Diplomat
Chinese state media and officials have tried to score easy propaganda points from U.S. racial tensions and social unrest in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, but the tactic can backfire spectacularly, as Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying found out recently. When she tweeted "I can't breathe" — using some of Floyd's last words with a policeman's knee on his neck — readers were quick to shoot back: "I can't tweet," reminding everyone that twitter is blocked by China. (Radio Free Asia)
Facebook Starts Labeling Russian, Chinese, And Iranian State Media
Facebook says it has begun to label state-controlled media organizations such as Russia's Sputnik, Iran's Press TV, and China's Xinhua News so that people know whether the content they read is coming from an entity that may be under the influence of a state.
Prominent Uyghur Journalist Confirmed Detained After Nearly Three Years
Prominent Uyghur journalist Qurban Mamut, the former editor-in-chief of the official Xinjiang Cultural Journal, has been confirmed detained in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He had been reported missing around November 2017, several months after he and his wife visited their son Bahram Qurban at his home in the U.S. state of Virginia. (Radio Free Asia)
COVID-19 COVERAGE:
Beijing Mulls Law Banning 'Defamation' of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Health authorities in the Chinese capital are considering banning the "slander or defamation" of traditional Chinese medicine, amid a nationwide campaign by President Xi Jinping to include traditional herbal formulas in the treatment of coronavirus. (Radio Free Asia)
Russian Farmers Call On Moscow To Permit Entry To Central Asian Migrant Workers
Russian farmers who are highly dependent on Central Asian workers to tend to their crops are in a bind as the coronavirus pandemic lockdown has left hundreds of thousands of migrants unable to get into Russia, threatening harvests and supply chains.
Moldova Orthodox Church Warns Of 5G Technology And Conspiracies
Moldova’s Orthodox Church recently issued a warning about any eventual coronavirus vaccine. A statement portrayed it as “an opportunity for the global system of anti-Christs to introduce microchips into the human body and control people with the help of 5G technology," and advised that such a vaccine not be mandatory.
MAJLIS PODCAST: How The Coronavirus Is Affecting Central Asia’s Relations With China
With Gul Berna Ozcan, University of London; Dirk van der Kley, from the Sydney-based China Matters; and RFE/RL’s Bruce Pannier.
RUSSIA: Power To The Putin: What’s In Russia’s Constitutional Reforms (video)
RSVP: June 12: Lessons From The Covid-19 Crisis For Fighting Disinformation, With The European Policy Centre And RFE/RL President Jamie Fly
LISTEN: RFE/RL President Jamie Fly Discusses Mounting Pressure On Independent Media With The Power 3.0 Podcast