Von ägyptischen Flachreliefs bis zu den Füßen von Buddha-Statuen in China, über Indien, soll die Reflexologie oder “Zonentherapie” durch Marco Polo, einen großen Entdecker Eurasiens, nach Europa gelangt sein. Dank einer Frau, Eudice Ingham, wurde diese alternative Behandlungsmethode zunächst in den USA populär. Aber heute entdecken wir die chinesischen Wurzeln dieser ganzheitlichen, umfassenden Praxis wieder, im Einklang mit der alten Weisheit von Laozi.
Zweifellos ist es ein instinktives Bedürfnis nach Schmerzlinderung oder einfach ein Zufall, dass die Inder und Chinesen die ersten Behandlungsmöglichkeiten der Reflexzonenmassage entdeckten. Völlig empirisch und improvisiert wurde erlebt, dass die Berührung eines Bereichs des Fußes offensichtlich auf einen anderen Bereich des Körpers einwirkte.
Dies natürlich ganz ohne Medikamente und chirurgische Techniken. Es war auf pragmatische Weise notwendig, den Weg zur Heilung zu finden, ohne die genaue Physiologie des menschlichen Körpers zu kennen.
Man weiß, dass die Fußreflexzonenmassage seit Menschengedenken praktiziert wird und dass sie in verschiedenen Kulturen bekannt war. 4.000 Jahre trennen uns von der Fußreflexzonenmassage des alten Ägyptens und der Art, wie wir sie heute anwenden; sie ist durch Ägypten, Indien, China und Japan gegangen! Die medizinische Fußsohlentherapie, wie wir sie heute kennen, entstand aber erst im 20. Jahrhundert, als der amerikanische Arzt W. Fitzgerald ein Druckpunktsystem zur Betäubung seiner Patienten entwickelte.
1930 zeichnete die große amerikanische Physiotherapeutin Eunice Ingham die Reflexzonenkarten der Füße, wie sie auch heute noch verwendet werden. Sie bezeichnete diese neue Disziplin in ihrem grundlegenden Werk, das dann Schule machte, “Die Geschichten, die die Füße erzählen”, als Reflexologie, und sie reiste durch die Vereinigten Staaten, um ihre Erkenntnisse zu verbreiten, auch wenn die gelehrten Ärzte ihre Vorbehalte hatten.
Wir finden also über Jahrhunderte und Kulturen hinweg Rituale, Zeremonien, Tafeln und Sprüche, die uns zeigen, wie wichtig unsere Füße sind, ein Teil unseres Körpers, den viele von uns heute noch vernachlässigen. Vergessen wir nicht, dass wir Menschen aufrecht auf den Füßen stehen und ihnen viel zu verdanken haben. Die Fußreflexzonenmassage ist inzwischen so beliebt, dass manche Allgemeinmediziner sie in die Betreuung ihrer Patienten einbeziehen.
Das Teil im Ganzen: Das chinesische ganzheitliche Konzept
Östliche therapeutische Praktiken, zu denen auch die Fußreflexzonenmassage gehört, gehen davon aus, dass die Hauptursache der Krankheit in einer Schwächung der körpereigenen Abwehrkräfte liegt. Diese Schwäche rührt von einem inneren Ungleichgewicht her. Östliche Praktiken zielen also darauf ab, dem Körper seine ganze innere Kraft zurückzugeben, indem sie die Energieflüsse, die ihn durchströmen, neu regulieren.
Der ganzheitliche Ansatz dieser uralten Praktiken stärkt und heilt den Menschen als Ganzes, weil diese Behandlungen von einem physischen, psychischen und spirituellen Standpunkt auswirken.
Anscheinend hat also die Fußreflexzonenmassage mehr mit Qigong und Akupunktur und daher mit der Philosophie von der Energie in der chinesischen Medizin zu tun, auch wenn die Ägypter und Inder bereits hoch entwickelte Körpertherapien anwendeten. Die Punkte an den massierten Füßen entsprechen den Akupressurpunkten der alten chinesischen Körperlehrbücher.
Man muss den Körper als Ganzes sehen. Nicht einfach als isolierte Organe!
Stress, Ernährung, Schlaf und Emotionen sind alles Faktoren, die unsere Gesundheit und damit auch den Zustand unserer Füße beeinflussen. Es ist klar, dass unsere Emotionen einen großen Einfluss auf unsere Gesundheit haben. Wie oft haben Sie schon unter einer schrecklichen Migräne gelitten, nachdem Sie sich stundenlang mit einem unlösbaren Problem beschäftigt hatten? Oder Sie hatten nach einer Mahlzeit, während derer Sie sich mit Ärger und Stress beschäftigt hatten, Verdauungsprobleme? Der Ausdruck “Ich bin einfach krank” bekommt hier seine volle Bedeutung.
Die meisten zeitgenössischen Forscher erkennen, dass der menschliche Organismus von Kräften gesteuert wird, die jenseits der mechanischen Prinzipien der westlichen Medizin liegen.
Es ist inzwischen bekannt, dass Frustration die regelrechte Funktion des Darms beeinträchtigt, während Depressionen das Risiko von Herzproblemen erhöhen. Und Lachen stimuliert nachweislich das Immunsystem!
Unsere Tage sind getaktet; wir verbringen unsere Zeit damit, der Zeit hinterherzujagen; Sie müssen die Einkäufe, das Haus, die Familie und Ihre Kinder managen. Zusätzlich haben Sie einen Vollzeitjob: eine Superfrau sein, okay, aber zu welchem Preis?
Der Stress und die Erschöpfung, die daraus resultieren, lassen uns an unseren Reserven zehren, um durchzuhalten, aber unweigerlich wirken sich diese Übel der modernen Gesellschaft auf unsere Energie und damit auf unseren Organismus aus.
Wir wissen heute auch, wie wichtig eine ausgewogene, gesunde Ernährung und eine gute Flüssigkeitszufuhr sind.
Denken Sie daran, dass all dies einen großen Einfluss auf unser körperliches und geistiges Gleichgewicht hat. Die Fußreflexzonenmassage berücksichtigt all diese Faktoren, sie basiert auf einem therapeutischen Prinzip: Die Füße sind auf tausendfache Weise mit allen Organen des Körpers verbunden. Sie sind die kommunizierende Wurzel des Ganzen.
Die Reflexologie ist also grundsätzlich ganzheitlich. Mit chinesischen Wurzeln.
Die chinesischen Fußmassagen
Die chinesische Medizin ist der Ansicht, dass die Füße das Tor zu guter Gesundheit sind. Gesundheit beginnt also in den Füßen und wandert dann nach oben in den ganzen Körper. So spiegeln sich alle Körperteile in der Fußsohle. Das blockierte QI in den Körperteilen wird durch das Massieren des entsprechenden Abschnitts in der Fußsohle freigesetzt!
Das gesamte System findet seine Darstellung zusammen mit dem Körperteil. Aber zum Beispiel reicht es nicht aus, nur den Magen anzugeben. Der Magen hat den ihm zustehenden Platz in der Fußsohle, zusammen mit dem gesamten Verdauungssystem.
Auch das Herz hat seine Darstellung in der Fußsohle, zusammen mit dem gesamten Kreislaufsystem. Die einzelnen Körperteile sind nur als Teil eines bestimmten Systems von Bedeutung. Gemeinsam bilden die unterschiedlichen Systeme den Körper und stellen ihn dar. Die chinesische Medizin denkt immer ganzheitlich.
Der Energiefluss wird in Teilen, dann im System und schließlich im ganzen Körper reguliert, um eine gute Gesundheit zu erreichen.
Die Fußkarten zeigen die Lage der Körperteile am Fuß an. Die Füße werden mit den Fingerknöcheln des Zeigefingers und des Daumens massiert.
The Trump and Biden administrations have relied on the work of a right-wing religious extremist, Adrian Zenz, for their “genocide” accusation against China. A close review of Zenz’s research reveals flagrant data abuse and outright falsehoods.
Both President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Anthony Blinken have endorsed former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s last-minute accusation of “genocide” against the Muslim Uyghur population in China’s Xinjiang province. But an investigation of published work by the researcher Pompeo relied on to level his genocide allegation reveals a pattern of data abuse and fraudulent assertions that substantially undermines the incendiary charge.
The US government’s accusation of genocide against China stems from a single source: a June 2020 paper by Adrian Zenz, a right-wing German researcher affiliated with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and neoconservative Jamestown Foundation in Washington, DC.
Articles by the Associated Press, CNN, and BBC also relied on Zenz’s article to claim that plunging Uyghur birth rates and the application of birth control measures in Uyghur counties of the Xinjiang region were proof of a policy of “demographic genocide.”
Just days after the publication of Zenz’s paper, Pompeo issued a statement denouncing China’s alleged policy of “forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coercive family planning,” personally crediting “Adrian Zenz’s shocking revelations.”
Biden backed the the genocide charge last August when it first appeared in a flurry of media reports. His campaign spokesman told Politico, “The unspeakable oppression that Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have suffered at the hands of China’s authoritarian government is genocide and Joe Biden stands against it in the strongest terms.” Blinken, for his part, declared at his first press conference as secretary of state that he agreed genocide has been committed against the Uyghurs.
While Zenz’s employers describe him as “one of the world’s leading scholars on People’s Republic of China government policies towards the country’s western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang,” he is, in fact, a far-right Christian fundamentalist who has said he is “led by God” against China’s government, deplores homosexuality and gender equality, and has taught exclusively in evangelical theological institutions.
Lyle Goldstein, a China specialist and research professor in the Strategic and Operational Research Department of the Naval War College, told The Grayzone that Zenz’s labeling of the Chinese approach to the Uyghurs as “demographic genocide” is “ridiculous to the point of being insulting to those who lost relatives in the Holocaust.”
Goldstein said the Chinese approach to Xinjiang “is a more repressive posture than we would like, but it sure isn’t genocide.”
Moreover, a careful review of Zenz’s research shows that his assertion of genocide is contradicted by flagrant data abuse, fraudulent claims, cherry-picking of source material, and propagandistic misrepresentations.
Adrian Zenz testifying before Congress on December 10, 2019
Genocide or equal treatment in family planning policy?
In Adrian Zenz’s 2020 paper for the Jamestown Foundation, he boasted that his findings “provide the strongest evidence yet that Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang meet one of the genocide criteria cited in the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
Zenz was referring Article 2 (d) of that Convention: “Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.” But Article II qualifies the relevant acts as those “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”
But “preventing births” by itself cannot be evidence of alleged genocide without evidence of intent to destroy the group in question.Otherwise, any birth control program provided to an ethnicgroup would be prima facie evidence of a policy of genocide against the group.
Zenz argued that population control measures applied to Uyghurscould be branded as “genocidal” because population growth rates fell by 84 percent in the two largest Uyghur prefectures between 2015 and 2018, and declined further in several minority regions in 2019. But more complete statistics that Zenz cited in his report, and data that he conveniently omitted, contradicted his conclusion.
Zenz provided statistics revealing that between 2005 and 2015, Uyghur population growth in Xinjiang was 2.6 times higher than that of Han Chinese in the Xinjiang region. (The chart displayed in his report is below).
Both official Chinese figures and Zenz agree that the Uyghur population in Xinjiang increased significantly between 2010 and 2018.
Left: Zenz’s graph on population changes in Xinjiang. Right: Official Chinese statistics on the same issue.
Zenz’s figures shows an increase in Uyghur population from 10.1 million to 11.8 million during the 2010 and 2018, while Chinese government figures demonstrate an even larger increase from 10.1 to 12.7 million. That means the Uyghur population in Xinjiang grew by a staggering 25.04 percent.
Zenz shows the Han Chinese population rising from 8.5 to 9.8 million during the eight-year period, while Chinese government figures show a smaller increase in Han population from 8.8 million to 9 million.
Both the rapid surge in Uyghur population growth rates and the increased margin of the Uyghur majority over the Han population of Xinjiang in recent years are the result of the one-child policy imposed on Han Chinese couples by the Chinese government in 1979.
According to China specialist Martin King Whyte, the one-child policy was accompanied by a long-term pattern of abuses in its implementation, including “intrusive menstrual monitoring, coerced sterilizations and abortions, staggering monetary fines for ‘over-quota’ births, smashing of furniture and housing of those who resist and withholding registration for babies born outside the plan.”
Uyghur families, however, were exempted from the one child policy. Urban Uyghur couples were allowed to have two children, and rural Uyghur couples three. In practice, moreover, rural Uyghurs often had large families, with as many as nine or ten children in some cases, as even Zenz acknowledged.
In 2015, the Chinese government announced a relaxation of the decades-long one-child limit on urban Han couples, allowing urban couples to have two children and rural families to have three. In Xinjiang, where birthrates routinely exceeded previously established limits, local officials urged the equal application of family planning policy between Han and Uyghur couples.
In July 2017, Xinjiang’s regional government ended the exemption on the old child limits for Uyghurs. Uyghur couples were thus expected to follow the same limitations recently imposed on Han couples: two children in urban areas and three in rural regions.
As the Chinese government has freely acknowledged, a 5 percent decrease in the birth rate in Xinjiang between 2017 and 2018 was the result of the equal enforcement of family planning policy across ethnic lines.
Cherry-picking and distorting source material, framing free healthcare as genocide
Also in 2017, China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission announced a $5.2 billion healthcare investment in Xinjiang, stating its intention to strengthen a brittle health infrastructure in impoverished, rural areas of the region.
According to Chinese government statistics, maternal and infant mortality rates in Xinjiang were nearly halved by 2018, while average life expectancy rose as a result of increased public health investments. A 2019 study by Lancet described China’s improvement of maternal health and infant mortality reduction as a “remarkable success story.” Another study that year by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences arrived at a similar conclusion. How these positive health indicators could serve as proof of genocide was left unexplained by Zenz, who simply omitted the numbers from his report.
Throughout his paper, Zenz framed the expansion of public healthcare services in Xinjiang as evidence of a genocide in the making. For example, Zenz pointed to a photograph of Uyghur residents of rural regions of Xinjiang receiving medical consultation at a free health clinic as part of an “effort to enforce the thorough implementation of increasing intrusive birth control efforts.”
However, the photograph depicted an elderly couple who were far too old to have children, and was dated May 2017 – months before the Chinese government announced an end to the child limit exemption for Uyghurs.
Left: Adrian Zenz’s creative interpretation of a photo showing an elderly couple receiving a free health check-up. Right: The original source of the photo.
According to the original source of the photograph, an article in China News, it depicted a regiment from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps deploying to a rural province as part of the government’s poverty eradication program. There, the doctors “measured blood pressure, electrocardiogram, blood sugar, height and weight for poor villagers who came to see the doctor for free… More than 200 poor people were diagnosed and treated, and more than 100 common drugs were distributed on the spot.”
At another point in his paper, Zenz cited an August 2019 document from Xinjiang’s Wenquan County government office as evidence of “greater pressure to implement intrusive birth control methods.” He referred to a single mention of 468 “birth control surgeries,” which could alternately be translated as “family planning operations,” but provided no evidence that the operations were coercive. Revealingly, Zenz omitted the next line, which expressed satisfaction with a birth rate of 8.11 percent.
Zenz proceeded to ignore the rest of the document, which touted the increased provision of free mental health services, polio vaccinations and AIDS prevention treatment as well as poverty alleviation measures and the construction of new hospitals and medical clinics for the population of Xinjiang.
How did a massive investment to improve the health of previously neglected rural communities fit within the framework of a policy of genocide? Once again, Zenz avoided the issue entirely.
Inventing statistics, spinning tales to frame the official enemy
Among Zenz’s “major findings” was the claim that “80 percent of all net added IUD placements in China… were performed in Xinjiang, despite the fact that the region only makes up 1.8 percent of the nation’s population.”
According to the 2019 China Health Statistics Yearbook published by the National Health Commission – the original source of Zenz’s claim – the number of new IUD insertion procedures in Xinjiang in 2018 accounted for only 8.7 percent of China’s total. So Zenz’s “major finding” appeared to be off by a factor of 10, a staggering error that substantially undermined the explosive quality of his argument.
The relevant sections of the statistical yearbook Zenz relied on was translated by a native Chinese speaker and are displayed below. A full translation of the chart can be viewed here, and an archive of the entire statistical yearbook is here.
When Zenz attempted to defend himself against accusations of cooking statistics on birth control surgeries in Xinjiang, he ultimately cast further doubt on the quality of his research. Responding to a Chinese academic critic, he claimed that he had calculated Xinjiang’s 239,457 new net IUD insertions (devices added minus those removed) as 80% of the national total in 2018.
However, Henan province registered 206,281 new net IUD insertions, or 69%, in 2018. Hebei, meanwhile, registered 61%, amounting to a total of 210% of national net insertions. These numbers only make sense when calculated alongside provinces like Jiangsu and Yunnan that had more removals (-60% and -54%, respectively) than total national net insertions. By relying on such a bizarre metric, Zenz appeared to have attempted a cynical statistical sleight of hand to paint Xinjiang as a hotbed of birth control surgery.
In perhaps the most unintentionally absurd assertion in an article filled with them, Zenz asserted that the Chinese government inserted between 800 and 1400 IUDs per capita each year in Xinjiang. Which meant that each woman in the province would have had to have undergone anywhere from 4 to 8 IUD surgeries every day. With so much time spent on the operating table every day, it’s a wonder that anyone in Xinjiang could find time to work, or eat.
Elsewhere in his paper, the daffy data diver asserted that 73.5 percent of married women of childbearing age in Xinjiang’s Kuqa County had IUDs fitted between 2017 and 2018. In a footnote, Zenz claimed, “This data comes from a cache of over 25,000 local government files obtained by the author in 2019.” The article he provided as accompaniment, however, was written by himself for the Jamestown Foundation and contained no data on IUD operations in Kuqa County.
In his paper, Zenz cited a September 2019 article in the US government-run outlet, Radio Free Asia, containing testimony by a US-based exile, Tursunay Ziyawudun, who claimed she was forcibly sterilized and physically tortured in a Chinese internment center.
However, in February 2020, Ziyawudun changed her story entirely, telling Buzzfeed: “I wasn’t beaten or abused. The hardest part was mental. It’s something I can’t explain — you suffer mentally. Being kept someplace and forced to stay there for no reason.”
Ziyawudun changed her story again after being relocated to the US and cultivated by the US government-funded Uyghur Human Rights Project. This February, she told the BBC and CNN that she was gang raped by guards in an internment camp. The BBC report relied on none other than Zenz as its expert voice on China’s supposed policy of “systematic rape.”
Zenz’s propagandistic framing, cherry-picking of original source materials, and cooking of statistics fit a pattern of misrepresentation on display in a December 2019 paper he authored for a NATO-linked publication alleging a Chinese policy to force members of the Uyghur minority into “slave labor.”
As Ajit Singh reported for The Grayzone, Zenz painted an article about a government program providing Uyghur women with free childcare as evidence of forced family separation – a “shocking example of this ‘liberation’ of women from their children,” he called it. Zenz conveniently omitted a quote in the article from a Uyghur woman who said the free childcare “solved [her] problem, now there are people who take care of my children, I can in peace go to work… very convenient.”
Because Zenz’s papers are published by a neoconservative think tank that has functioned as a US intelligence cut-out, they are not peer reviewed by credentialed academics. But they do not appear to have undergone much fact-checking either. This has left Zenz exposed to embarrassing scrutiny from the internet, and forced him to edit out errors after questioning from random Twitter users:
While it’s hard to understand how Zenz has gotten away with so much statistical malpractice, a look at his background helps explain his ideological motivations, and provides important context on his negative focus on the application of birth control. He is an anti-abortion, anti-feminist Christian fundamentalist captivated by End Times theology, and has said that god has led him on a mission against the Chinese government.
Adrian Zenz’s first book, co-authored with Marlon Sias, condemns gender equality, homosexuality, and socialism as works of the Antichrist
An anti-gay, anti-abortion Christianist dedicated “led by god” against China
The BBC based its June 2020 report alleging “forc[ed] birth control to suppress population” on Zenz’s work, referring to him as a “China scholar” without mentioning his employment by right-wing institutions in Washington or his own hyper-ideological views.
Like the BBC, an AP report relied entirely on an advance copy of Zenz’s paper, but provided no background and whitewashed his right-wing politics or institutional affiliations. A CNN story published a month later and a CNN follow-up in September 2020 on alleged Chinese forced sterilizations in Xinjiang also relied on Zenz without mentioning his political background.
As The Grayzone has reported, Zenz is a far right Christian fundamentalist who claims to have been “led by god’ to defeat the Communist Party of China. While he is almost invariably touted in Western media as a leading scholar on China, he described himself in 2015 as “a lecturer in empirical research methods at a Christian university.” As late as 2018, in fact, Zenz was listed as a faculty member of the European School of Culture and Theology at Columbia International University in Korntal, Germany.
Zenz’s first published book, “Worthy to Escape: Why all believers will not be raptured before the Tribulation,” he and his co-author, Marlos Sias, urged Christian believers to subject unruly children to “scriptural spanking,” condemned homosexuality as “one of the four empires of the beast,” and argued that Jews who refuse to convert to evangelical Christianity during the End Times would either be “wipe[d] out” or “refined” in a “fiery furnace.”
In the End Times tome, Zenz predicted that the coming fall of capitalism would bring to power the Antichrist within a “few decades.” He identified the force that “will usher the Antichrist into power” as “the economic and financial fall of ‘Babylon,’ with ‘Babylon’ symbolically representing the world’s global economic system (capitalism).”
Like other born-again evangelicals, Zenz is also fiercely anti-abortion and opposed to gender equality. “Another important God-given authority structure that Satan is attacking through the postmodern spirit is that of gender authority structures,” Zenz wrote. “Through notions of gender equality […] the enemy is undermining God’s unique but different role assignments for men and women.”
Zenz currently serves as a fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a Washington DC-based right-wing lobbying front born out of the National Captive Nations Committee. The latter group was founded by Ukrainian nationalist Lev Dobriansky to stifle any efforts at diplomacy with the Soviet Union. Its co-chairman, Yaroslav Stetsko, was a leader of the OUN-B militia that fought alongside Nazi Germany during its occupation of Ukraine in World War II.
In April 2020, Zenz’s employer listed all global deaths from Covid-19 as “victims of communism,” blaming each of them on the Chinese government.
Zenz is also employed by the Jamestown Foundation, a neoconservative think tank in Washington DC founded as the outcome of efforts by Ronald Reagan’s CIA Director, William J. Casey, to establish an extra-governmental channel to pay Soviet dissidents. In the past, Jamestown leadership has spearheaded lobbying efforts to support separatism in Chechnya.
In their apparent zeal for escalation with China, mainstream Western outlets like the AP, BBC and CNN have accepted Zenz’s dubious research as absolute fact, while ignoring his background as a religious extremist who is ideologically committed to regime change in Beijing. If Biden and Blinken formally adopt the Trump administration’s “genocide” designation, they will have effectively endorsed Zenz’s shoddy and propagandistic research as well.
The genocide accusation may appeal to the Biden administration as a useful geopolitical cudgel, as well as a defense against right-wing Republic attacks painting the new president as “soft on China.” But it will only strengthen the hand of hardliners determined to provoke a dangerous and potentially catastrophic confrontation with a fellow nuclear-armed power.
“The United States has set out to vilify China,” former US Deputy Chief of Mission in Beijing and Assistant Secretary of Defense Chas Freeman told The Grayzone, and the accusation of Uyghur genocide “is the perfect issue with which to do so.”
Freeman opined that the Chinese “seem to be doing many cruel and counterproductive things in Xinjiang.” However, he cautioned against taking the genocide accusation at face value: “In the current atmosphere, we should be especially skeptical about any and all assertions by people who have become part of the current anti-China campaign in the West. Before we condemn, we should be sure of our facts.”
The Jamestown Foundation did not respond to a request for comment on Zenz’s research.
Autor: GARETH PORTER, Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist who has covered national security policy since 2005 and was the recipient of Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 2012. His most recent book is The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis co-authored with John Kiriakou, just published in February. / MAX BLUMENTHAL The editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, he is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath, The Fifty One Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.
Die 5G-Technologie treibt die Welt zu grünen Lösungen und ermöglicht es, nachhaltiger und umweltfreundlicher zu werden.
Laszlo Palkovics, Minister für Innovation und Technologie, sprach darüber auf dem Connected for Shared Prosperity Forum, das von Huawei Technologies, der World Mobile Federation (GSMA) und der Fudan University organisiert wurde. Auf der von The Paper organisierten Veranstaltung, teils live und teils über das Internet, sprach der Minister per Videolink mit mehreren Ministern und Vertretern der Vereinten Nationen.
Vertreter internationaler Organisationen, Behörden und Regierungen aus 50 Ländern der Welt diskutieren über die Rolle und die Auswirkungen digitaler Technologien auf die nachhaltige Entwicklung.
Huawei: Es muss Einigkeit darüber erzielt werden, ob Technologie der Motor der menschlichen Entwicklung ist
Chen Lifang, Senior Vice President und Vorstandsmitglied von Huawei, betonte in seiner Eröffnungsrede das Engagement des Unternehmens, die UN-Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung zu unterstützen und damit eine grünere, innovativere Welt aufzubauen. Die erste Herausforderung, sagt er, besteht darin, einen Konsens in der Welt darüber zu erzielen, ob Technologie der Motor der menschlichen Entwicklung ist.
“Technologische Fortschritte sind heute nicht nur trending, sondern auch politisiert und manchmal verteufelt. Viele haben aus Angst und Misstrauen den Glauben an die Macht der Technologie verloren. Dennoch ist 5G eine standardisierte Technologie, die dazu beiträgt, traditionelle Industrien zu digitalisieren und allen zu nützen. Um sie zum Wohle der Gesellschaft zu nutzen, ist es notwendig, erstens an die Macht der Technologie zu glauben und zweitens den Einsatz von Technologie effektiv zu machen”, sagte Chen Lifang.
Palkovics: Unterstützung für die Entwicklung von 5G für Nachhaltigkeit
Laszlo Palkovics betonte in seiner Online-Rede, dass es viele Aspekte der 5G-Technologie gibt, die die Welt zu grünen Lösungen führen und es ermöglichen, nachhaltiger und umweltfreundlicher zu werden. Unter Berufung auf Analysten betonte der Minister, dass drei wichtige Industrien ihren Energieverbrauch dank 5G deutlich senken werden: die Energie-, Gesundheits- und Fertigungsindustrie.
“5G kann installiert werden, um die Umwelt zu schützen und die langfristige Nachhaltigkeit zu fördern. Daher sollte die Entwicklung von 5G in diesen Sektoren unterstützt werden, um dank der einzigartigen Fähigkeiten von 5G Ergebnisse in Der Nachhaltigkeit als Mehrwert zu erzielen”, sagte er.
Laut Palkovics führt 5G positive Veränderungen im Umweltschutz in folgenden Bereichen an:
– Sie kann zur Verringerung der CO2-Emissionen beitragen, indem sie die Fahrten für Telearbeit reduziert und Verkehrssysteme und industrielle Prozesse effizienter macht. – Es ermöglicht neue Funktionen, die verwendet werden können, um Umweltgefahren in Echtzeit zu erkennen und bei der Wiederherstellung nach einer Naturkatastrophe zu helfen, sowohl zum Schutz der Menschen als auch des Planeten. – Hilft der Industrie – von der Fertigung über den Transport bis hin zur Landwirtschaft – indem die Energie-, Ressourcen- und Materialeffizienz verbessert wird, die durch Automatisierung und Digitalisierung ermöglicht wird. – Unterstützt autonome Systeme in Großstädten durch die Bereitstellung von Echtzeitdaten über Straßenbeleuchtung, intelligente Verkehrswarnsysteme auf den Straßen, die zu geringeren Emissionen führen. – Sensoren, die mit 5G-Netzen verbunden sind, verbessern die Effizienz der Nährstoffversorgung, Bewässerung und Schädlingsbekämpfung in der Landwirtschaft, was zu gesünderen Lebensmitteln führt.
Der Einsatz digitaler Technologien kann dazu beitragen, den Klimawandel zu bewältigen und die nachhaltige Entwicklung anzukurbeln und gleichzeitig Einnahmen zu generieren, Arbeitsplätze zu schaffen und die Wirtschaftstätigkeit anzukurbeln, betonte L. Palkovics. Er fügte hinzu, dass Ungarn sich verpflichtet habe, Fortschritte bei der nachhaltigen und grünen Entwicklung mit Hilfe digitaler Technologien zu erzielen und eines der wichtigsten europäischen Zentren für die Entwicklung von 5G zu werden und eines der ersten in der Welt zu sein, das 5G einführt. Die ungarische Regierung unterstützt eine Reihe von Programmen, die sich auf Umweltziele konzentrieren, wie die weit verbreitete Nutzung von Elektrofahrzeugen, Nachhaltigkeit, Nullemissionen oder die Entwicklung erneuerbarer Kraftstoffe.
5G-Entwicklung übertrifft alle Erwartungen
Laut Huawei Technologies hat die Entwicklung von 5G im vergangenen Jahr alle Erwartungen übertroffen. Die Anzahl der Nutzer erreichte 200 Millionen und 800.000 5G-Stationen wurden weltweit gebaut. Die Gesamte-Benutzererfahrung hat sich mehr als verzehnfacht, und 5G-Terminals für Einstiegsstufen sind jetzt für weniger als 350 US-Dollar verfügbar. In China waren mehr als 68 % der im Jahr 2020 ausgelieferten Smartphones 5G-fähig.
Heute stehen mehr als 200 5G-Module und Industriegeräte zur Verfügung, um Technologie in mehr als 20 Branchen zu unterstützen, darunter Fertigung, Gesundheitswesen, Bildung und Logistik. Die Einführung von 5G in China hat die Produktion im Kohlebergbau, in der Stahlerzeugung und in der Fertigung sicherer, intelligenter und effizienter gemacht.
“5G hat sich schneller entwickelt als erwartet. Bisher wurden mehr als 140 kommerzielle 5G-Netzwerke in 59 Ländern auf der ganzen Welt installiert, von denen mehr als 50 Prozent mit Huawei-Geräten gebaut wurden. In diesem Jahr wird 2021 das erste Jahr sein, in dem die Branche voll von großen 5G-Anwendungen sein wird”, sagte ryan ding. Der Direktor der Business Network Development Division von Huawei bei MWC betonte, dass 5G nicht mehr für frühe Nutzer gedacht ist, sondern unser tägliches Leben verbessert.
Covid-19-bedingte Maßnahmen durch die Stadt Hangzhou, wo Konzern Alibaba Gruppe ansässig ist, wurden Ende Januar 2021 veröffentlicht, jede/r Wanderarbeitende/r werde 1.000 YUAN (umgerechnet auf circa 125 EURO) von der Stadtverwaltung als Entschädigung ausgezahlt erhalten, wenn sie/ er während des Frühlingsfests freiwillig am Arbeitsort bleibe. Zugleich ist Zutritt zu allen Sehenswürdigkeiten in Hangzhou für alle in Hangzhou bleibenden Wanderarbeiter in den Feiertagen kostenfrei. Antrag auf die Belohnung begann am 01. Februar 2021. Solche WanderarbeiterInnen, die unbedingt nach Hause zum Fest fahren, verlieren automatisch diese Chance.
Hongbao mit 1000 Yuan für Wanderarbeiter, die in Hangzhou zur Eindämmung der Corona freiwillig bleiben.
Jungen Investoren für Fitness-Studios oder kleine Events öffnen sogar die Geschäfte für die Wandarbeiter zur Feier frei.
Kostenfreie Trainings im Studio während des Frühlingsfests
Bis zum 15. Februar 2021 haben 809.800 Antragsteller ihre Entschädigung erhalten. Die Summe beträgt über 100 Mio. EURO.
Huawei Technologies verzeichnete 2020 erwartungsgemäß einen leichten Umsatz- und Gewinnanstieg, sagte der Präsident des Unternehmens am 22. Februar 2021, obwohl Washington die Sanktionen gegen den chinesischen Telekommunikationsausrüster verschärfte.
Das Unternehmen wurde 2019 vom ehemaligen US-Präsidenten Donald Trump auf die schwarze Liste gesetzt und von kritischer Technologie amerikanischer Abstammung ausgeschlossen. Während der ganzen Zeit hat Huawei wiederholt bestritten, ein Sicherheitsrisiko zu bestehen.
“Huawei hatte letztes Jahr außergewöhnliche Schwierigkeiten. Die Operationen waren relativ stabil und im Einklang mit unserer Prognose, verzeichnete einen leichten Anstieg der Einnahmen und Überschüsse”,sagte Präsident Ken HU auf dem mobilen Weltkongress Shanghai Industrieveranstaltung, Reuters berichtet .
Anfang des Monats sagte der Gründer und Geschäftsführer des Unternehmens, REN Zhengfei, er hoffe, dass die Biden-Administration “eine offene Politik” gegenüber US-Firmen tragen werde, die Geschäfte mit Huawei zu machen.
China hat nach Angaben des Chinesischen Ministeriums für Informationstechnologie bisher mehr als 260 Milliarden YUAN (circa 40,27 Milliarden US-Dollars) für den Aufbau des 5G-Netzes ausgegeben.
Huawei hat am 22. Februar 2021 sein neues Falttelefon 5G Mate X2 vorgestellt, das Kirins Prozessor 9000 5G verwenden wird.
Huawei Mate X2
Obwohl das billigste Modell einen Preis ab 17.999 YUAN (circa 2.788 USD) hat, ist das Telefon nicht positioniert, um den Haupttelefonmarkt herauszufordern.
Huawei habe 50.000 5G-Basisstationen in Indonesien eingerichtet, sagte HU und fügte hinzu, dass es den Bau von 2.000 Basisstationen in abgelegenen Regionen Ghanas plane.
Huawei baut 5G-Anlagen ohne US-Komponenten.
Im März 2021 wird das Unternehmen die im vergangenen Jahr erzielten Finanzergebnisse veröffentlichen.
Am 02. Februar 2021 äußerte sich der hochrangige chinesische Diplomat Yang Jiechi, Mitglied des Politbüros des Zentralkomitees der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas (KPCh) und Direktor des Büros der Kommission für auswärtige Angelegenheiten des KPCh-Zentralkomitees, in einem Online-Gespräch mit Vorstandsmitgliedern des Nationalen Komitees zu den Beziehungen zwischen den USA und China. Er forderte die Biden-Regierung auf, sich auf die Zusammenarbeit zu konzentrieren und die Differenzen in den bilateralen Beziehungen zu bewältigen, um die Beziehungen wieder auf den früheren Kurs einer gesunden und stetigen Entwicklung zu bringen.
Im Rückblick auf die historischen Errungenschaften der chinesisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen bedeutet die „Ping-Pong-Diplomatie“, den Willen und die Bemühungen des amerikanischen und des chinesischen Volkes, die chinesisch-amerikanische Freundschaft, das gegenseitige Vertrauen und die Zusammenarbeit über Jahrzehnte hinweg zu fördern. Yang wies mit Bedauern darauf hin, dass die extrem verfehlte Anti-China-Politik der Trump-Regierung den chinesisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen und den grundlegenden Interessen der Menschen beider Länder geschadet hat, insbesondere die Fehlinformationen zu COVID-19. Die stete Kritik an der extremen Anti-China-Fraktion steht in scharfem Kontrast zu dieser Politik. Sie hat einen wertvollen Beitrag dazu geleistet, dass die Beziehung zwischen China und den USA einigermaßen stabil geblieben ist.
Die Epidemie hat den Menschen viele neue Erkenntnisse gebracht. Eine der wichtigsten ist die, dass im Zeitalter der Globalisierung die Interessen aller Länder eng miteinander verknüpft sind. Nur wenn wir uns zusammenschließen und die internationale Koordination und Kooperation stärken, können wir effektiv auf die unterschiedlichen globalen Herausforderungen reagieren und eine bessere Zukunft schaffen. Die Interessen Chinas und der Vereinigten Staaten sind eng miteinander verflochten. Für die beiden größten Volkswirtschaften der Welt, die darüber hinaus ständige Mitglieder des UN-Sicherheitsrats sind, hängt die Frage, ob China und die Vereinigten Staaten effektiv zusammenarbeiten können, direkt mit dem Wohlergehen der Menschen aller Länder und dem Weltfrieden, der Entwicklung und dem Wohlstand zusammen.
Nach dem offiziellen Amtsantritt der Biden-Regierung stehen sowohl China als auch die USA vor der Aufgabe, die Entwicklung der bilateralen Beziehungen auf dem Weg des Nicht-Konflikts, der Nicht-Konfrontation, des gegenseitigen Respekts und der Win-Win-Kooperation zum Nutzen der beiden Länder und ihrer Völker wiederherzustellen, basierend auf der gegenseitigen Achtung der nationalen Souveränität, Sicherheit und Entwicklung.Nach dem offiziellen Amtsantritt der Biden-Regierung ist dies eine Aufgabe sowohl für China als auch für die U.S.A.
Es gibt vier wesentliche Aspekte, die von beiden Seiten perfektioniert werden können:
China richtig einschätzen. Die Serie von Fehleinschätzungen und falscher Politik, die von der früheren Regierung gegenüber China umgesetzt wurde, war ein historischer, richtungsweisender und strategischer Fehler. China hält sich an den Weg der friedlichen Entwicklung und der offenen Strategie des gegenseitigen Nutzens und der Win-Win-Ergebnisse und hofft aufrichtig, eine gemeinsame Entwicklung mit allen Ländern der Welt zu erreichen, anstatt eine nationale Bedrohung zu sein. Niemand hat das Recht, dem chinesischen Volk das Recht auf ein besseres Leben zu nehmen, und die Entwicklung und das Wachstum Chinas können durch keine Gewalt blockiert werden. Die USA müssen das alte Denken von Nullsummenspielen unter Großmächten überwinden und mit China zusammenarbeiten, um die richtige Richtung der chinesisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen fest im Griff zu haben.
Fünf-Finger-Strategie von den USA gegen China
Wiederaufnahme der normalen Kommunikation. Die Zusammenarbeit und Kommunikation von Think Tanks, Universitäten, Medien, lokalen Behörden, Unternehmen und anderen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen der beiden Länder verleihen den chinesisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen durch verschiedene Formen mehr positive Energie. Die neue US-Regierung sollte die falsche und unpopuläre Politik und Maßnahmen abschaffen, die chinesische Studenten, die in den USA studieren, schikanieren, chinesische Medien in den USA einschränken, Konfuzius-Institute schließen und chinesische Unternehmen unterdrücken, und die „Stolpersteine“ entfernen, die den Austausch und die Zusammenarbeit zwischen den beiden Ländern behindern. Beide Seiten sollten das positive Verständnis der beiden Völker füreinander stärken und die gesellschaftliche und öffentliche Unterstützung für die Entwicklung der chinesisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen festigen.
Der richtige Umgang mit Widersprüchen und Unterschieden. China und die Vereinigten Staaten sind zwei große Länder mit unterschiedlicher Geschichte, Kultur und Systemen. China hat sich nie in die inneren Angelegenheiten der USA, einschließlich der allgemeinen Wahlen, eingemischt, hat sein Entwicklungsmodell nie nach außen exportiert, hat sich nie auf eine ideologische Konfrontation eingelassen, hat nie versucht, die USA herauszufordern oder zu ersetzen, und hat nicht die Absicht, seine Einflusssphäre auszudehnen, und das sollte auch für die USA gelten. Die USA sollten sich strikt an das Ein-China-Prinzip halten, aufhören, sich in Hongkong, Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan und andere Fragen einzumischen, die Chinas Souveränität und territoriale Integrität betreffen, und aufhören zu versuchen, Chinas Entwicklung durch Einmischung in Chinas innere Angelegenheiten einzudämmen und zu behindern. Beide Seiten sollten die historischen und kulturellen Traditionen der jeweils anderen Seite respektieren, die Kerninteressen und Hauptanliegen der anderen Seite achten und ihre jeweiligen politischen Systeme und Entwicklungswege respektieren.
Entwicklung einer für beide Seiten vorteilhaften Zusammenarbeit. Es gibt so viel Wichtiges zu bewerkstelligen. Einige US-Politiker sollten sofort aufhören, die Epidemie zu verwenden, um China zu stigmatisieren. Vielmehr sollten sie erkunden, wie sie gemeinsam das globale öffentliche Gesundheitssystem verbessern können, und eine günstige Atmosphäre für beide Seiten schaffen, um die Zusammenarbeit in vielen Aspekten durchzuführen. In Wirtschafts- und Handelsfragen sollten beide Seiten ein faires, offenes und nicht-diskriminierendes Umfeld für die Unternehmen der jeweils anderen Seite schaffen. Beim Umgang mit dem Klimawandel können China und die Vereinigten Staaten neue Energien fördern, um eine nachhaltige wirtschaftliche und soziale Entwicklung zu erreichen. Beide Seiten können auch den Austausch und die Zusammenarbeit in den Bereichen der bewaffneten Streitkräfte, der Strafverfolgung, der Drogenkontrolle, der Cybersicherheit, der Armutsbekämpfung, der Terrorismusbekämpfung und der Nichtverbreitung fördern; die Zusammenarbeit innerhalb der Vereinten Nationen, der Weltgesundheitsorganisation, der G20, der APEC und anderer multilateraler Rahmen verstärken, die Global Governance weiter verbessern und stärken und die Globalisierung in Richtung einer offeneren, inklusiveren, ausgewogeneren, inklusiveren und Win-Win-Richtung fördern.
„China ist bereit, die makroökonomische Politikkoordination mit den USA zu verstärken, bei der Sicherung der globalen Industrie- und Lieferketten zu kooperieren und die globale Wirtschafts- und Finanzstabilität aufrechtzuerhalten, um das Wirtschaftswachstum in beiden Ländern und der Welt zu fördern. Ich hoffe, dass das Nationale Komitee für die Beziehungen zwischen den USA und China, seine Mitglieder und Menschen aus allen Bereichen des Lebens in den Vereinigten Staaten weiterhin eine aktive Rolle spielen und mehr Weisheit und Kraft zur gesunden und stabilen Entwicklung der Beziehungen zwischen China und den USA beitragen werden“, sagte Yang.
Nach dem historischen Entwicklungstrend zu urteilen, sieht die Zukunft der chinesisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen gut aus. Solange beide Seiten von den grundlegenden Interessen der beiden Völker und der Völker der Welt ausgehen, an der gegenseitigen Achtung festhalten, die Gemeinsamkeiten suchen und gleichzeitig die Unterschiede bewahren, auf einem effektiven Umgang mit den Unterschieden beharren und die gemeinsamen Interessen ausbauen, werden die Beziehungen zwischen China und den USA sicherlich einen Weg der Verbesserung und Entwicklung einschlagen, der den beiden Völkern und allen Ländern der Welt zugutekommt.
A new wave of media reports on Chinese forced labor relies almost entirely on a series of dubious studies by purportedly “independent” think tanks backed by the West’s military-intelligence apparatus.
By Ajit Singh
A recent surge in stories in the Western press accuse China of implementing an oppressive program of “forced labor” against the country’s Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority. The titanic crime China is accused of has been called “Xinjiang’s new slavery.” This alleged coercive system is said to encompass more than 80,000 laborers and implicate the supply chains of 83 global brands, including Apple, Amazon, Nike, BMW, Gap, Samsung, Sony, and Volkswagen.
Featured in Western news outlets from Foreign Policy to the Washington Post to Democracy Now!, the reports rely on a series of questionable studies by purportedly “independent, nonpartisan” think tanks and crank experts backed by the West’s military-intelligence apparatus. Building upon the dubious but endlessly repeated claims that China is detaining millions of Uyghurs Muslims, these studies argue that “forced labor” is the “next step” in China’s tyrannical campaign against the ethnic minority.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) are the main institutions responsible for the forced labor studies. The reports have also relied heavily on an evangelical religious fanatic billed as the “leading expert” on Xinjiang, Adrian Zenz, who has said he is “led by God” on a “mission” against China.
A close look at the reports churned out by these bodies reveal serious biases and credibility gaps that Western media willfully ignores in its bid to paint China as the world’s worst human rights violator.
Both ASPI and CSIS are right-wing, militaristic think tanks funded by US and Western governments, mega-corporations, and an eye-popping array of weapons manufacturers. As previously reported by The Grayzone, Adrian Zenz is a far-right fundamentalist Christian whose questionable but incendiary accusations against China have led to the Western press crowing him as the leading international “expert” on Xinjiang. Zenz’s most recent claims of “forced labor” were published by a “journal” founded and managed by US and NATO military operatives.
The latest allegations against China appear to form part of a PR blitz seeking to escalate Washington’s new Cold War and regime change efforts against Beijing.
Shortly following the release of these reports, US Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern announced that he would be introducing a new bill which would ban all US imports from Xinjiang. McGovern is an ardent supporter of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), a US-backed, far-right regime change network seeking the overthrow of the Chinese government. He even presented WUC President Dolkun Isa with the National Endowment for Democracy’s 2019 Democracy Award.
On March 9, US lawmakers introduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, co-sponsored by McGovern and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, which would effectively ban all imports from Xinjiang. The proposed act would codify into US law a “rebuttable presumption” that “assumes that all goods manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labor and therefore banned […] unless the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection certifies otherwise.” The bill also calls for the US President to impose sanctions on “any foreign person” who engages in “forced labor” in Xinjiang.
Even putatively progressive news outlets have joined the frenzy, with The Nation and Democracy Now! uncritically parroting these studies with no mention of their relations to the US and Western governments and military contractors. Furthermore, both of these media platforms interviewed members of the WUC-affiliated Uyghur Human Rights Project, Mustafa Aksu and Nury Turkel respectively, to comment on this story — again, with no mention or concern for their extensive ties to the US regime-change establishment.
‘Independent’ Australian think tank funded by US, NATO, and weapons manufacturers
The three reports relied upon in the recent “forced labor” media coverage are authored by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Adrian Zenz. While presented by the Western press as impartial, expert assessments, a closer look raises serious concerns about the biases and credibility of these “studies.”
On March 1, ASPI published a policy brief, titled “Uyghurs for sale: ‘Re-education,’ forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang.” The paper triggered the renewed round of Western media accusations against China.
While ASPI describes itself as a “an independent, non-partisan think tank” — a characterization that has been parroted by the Western press — it is, in fact, a right-wing, militaristic outfit that was founded by the Australian government in 2001 and is funded by the country’s Department of Defence.
ASPI blasted for being US lackey, promoting new Cold War with China
A recent profile of ASPI in the Australian Financial Review notes that the organization has “been accused of fomenting anti-China hysteria, to the alleged benefit of its benefactors.” ASPI has been so bellicose it has come in for criticism from major figures in Australian foreign policy circles.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has slammed ASPI for pushing a “one-sided, pro-American view of the world”, while the former Australian ambassador to China Geoff Raby added that ASPI is “the architect of the China threat theory in Australia”.
Australian Senator Kim Carr of the Labour Party has echoed the criticism of ASPI, condemning the think tank for seeking to “promote a new cold war with China” in collaboration with the US. In a February 2020 parliamentary session, Carr warned that “[i]n parts of the [Australian] defence and security establishment, there are hawks intent on fighting a new cold war” with China, highlighting ASPI’s extensive funding from the US State Department’s Global Engagement Center, headed by former CIA officer and Navy fighter pilot Lea Gabrielle.
Carr said ASPI has received nearly $450,000 in funding from the US State Department for the 2019 to 2020 financial year. (ASPI claims that the amount is “less than half” of the figure stated by Carr.)
These criticisms of ASPI appear to be well founded. Since 2012, ASPI has been headed by Peter Jennings, a former Australian Department of Defense official. Jennings is an ardent advocate of US imperialism who has staunchly defended the Iraq War, supported regime change in Syria, and pointed to Ukraine and Iraq to argue that “the West is setting the bar for a military response too high.”
ASPI’s ‘forced labor’ report relies on speculation and sensationalism
On March 1, ASPI published a policy brief titled “Uyghurs for sale: ‘Re-education,’ forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang.” The report was funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which oversees Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) the UK equivalent to the National Security Agency, and the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) commonly known as MI6.
As Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal previously reported for The Grayzone, the FCO backs the Integrity Initiative, a propaganda mill which smears left-wing figures across the West, including former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Opening with the highly suspect claim that China is detaining millions of Uyghur Muslims, the ASPI study contends that China’s “re-education campaign” is “entering a new phase” in which at least 80,000 Uyghurs “are now being forced to work in factories” through a program transferring Uyghur laborers to companies within Xinijang and to other provinces. The factories employing these workers are alleged to be part of the supply chain of 83 major corporations.
The study contends that the Chinese government has implemented the coercive program under the guise of poverty alleviation and generating employment for impoverished sectors of the population. The authors ignore the fact that China’s poverty alleviation efforts are praised by development institutions around the world for lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and presume it to be a phony pretext.
While Beijing’s policy in Xinjiang is indisputably focused on combating religious extremism, separatism and political instability — the government openly admits to this — the authors’ claims of a dystopian forced labor regime seem to rely more on sensationalism and speculation than concrete evidence.
For example:
The authors claim that workers are tightly controlled, with “little freedom of movement” and “isolated from their families.” As evidence, they cite a Chinese-language media report which features a story about a migrant worker from Xinjiang who obtained full-time industrial employment in the urban province of Shandong through the government’s employment program. The woman describes the challenges of working far away from her family in Xinjiang but emphasizes that she has used the program to earn more income and pay for household renovations and new livestock back home. What’s more, the woman states that while she initially wanted work through the program for only one year, she now wants to work for at least three years given the income it allows her to earn, indicating that she is voluntarily choosing to participate in the program for economic benefit.
Throughout the report, the authors refer to housing provided for migrant workers as “segregated dormitories.” On the one hand, the authors decry the “segregation” and “isolation” of the Uyghur workers who “speak almost no Mandarin, so communication with locals is largely non-existent,” but denounce Mandarin language classes offered to workers as insidious “political indoctrination.”
The authors claim that “workers’ ideology and behaviour are closely monitored,” citing the existence of a “psychological consulting” service.
The authors searched for “a variety of keywords relating to Xinjiang labour transfers” on the Chinese search engine Baidu and cite the increase in search results over time as indicating the increasing importance of the program to the Chinese government. This would be akin to analyzing US policy based on the volume of Google search results.
Ultimately, only two pages and a case study of a single factory are devoted to establishing the case of “forced labor”, with the vast majority of the 56-page report focused on connecting this alleged involuntary program with the major Western corporations and pressuring them to disengage with China.
ASPI’s ‘forced labor’ report relies on far-right blog of religious fanatics
The ASPI report presents no original evidence from workers who have been forced to work in this program, but cites anonymous “testimonies” from an obscure, far-right online blog. Called Bitter Winter, the blog is a project of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an Italy-based organization that opposes what it calls “anti-cult terrorism”.
Bitter Winter and its parent organization have vigorously defended fanatical Chinese religious movements including Falun Gong and the Church of the Almighty God, or Eastern Lightning. The latter is a Chinese-Christian sect which believes that Jesus Christ has been reincarnated as a Chinese woman currently living in Queens, New York.
Eastern Lightning is notorious for mass kidnappings, assaults, and murderous violence against perceived “demons” or non-believers, including bludgeoning a woman to death for refusing to give recruiters her phone number in 2014. During the 2019 Israeli elections, Buzzfeed reported that Twitter suspended dozens of Hebrew-language accounts run by the cult for “amplifying political messages for right-wing [Israeli] politicians.”
CESNUR has also taken up the cause of the Japanese doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo which was responsible for the 1995 Tokyo sarin gas attack. CESNUR board member J. Gordon Melton was paid by Aum Shinrikyo to travel to Japan to document alleged human rights violations against the group.
CESNUR founder, Massimo Introvigne, is the editor-in-chief of Bitter Winter. Introvigne is an ultra-conservative religious zealot who contends that Christians are “the most persecuted group in the world” due to abortion, gay marriage, and hate speech laws which he contends supress their religious freedom.
Introvigne considers communism to be an existential threat to religion, writing that “[n]egotiating with Beijing is like the proverbial supping with the Devil.” Introvigne regularly appears in videos produced by Church of the Almighty God/Eastern Lightning advocating on their behalf and claiming the cult is the victim of “propaganda” and “fake news”.
The “director-in-charge” of Bitter Winter is Marco Respinti, a far-right Christian conservative who describes his work as “devoted to serve and protect the Western heritage of life, liberties, and property” and working towards a society of “limited government, free enterprise, natural family, and traditional moral values.” Respinti is a Senior fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal and a founding member of the Center for European Renewal, two ardently conservative organizations, and editor-in-chief of the anti-gay, anti-choice publication International Family News.
Australian media stifle criticism of ASPI report, manipulate interview subjects
As they push forward with their anti-China frenzy, Western media outlets are not concerned with the serious issues related to the biases and credibility of the ASPI report, in fact, they seem intent on stifling any criticism of their narrative.
Shortly following the release of the report, the state-run Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) aired a profile of lead author, Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, as part of their “Australian Story” documentary series. According to Ye Xue, a Chinese-Australian PhD student at the University of Sydney, who was an interviewee on the program, the broadcaster pushed him to “praise Vicky’s research on Xinjiang” and made it clear “that they [did] not need my negative comments” or to hear that he disagreed with Xu.
The silencing of alternative viewpoints on China appears to be part of a larger trend within Australian media. Michael, a Chinese Muslim who lives in Australia and requested anonymity to protect himself from reprisal by his employer, told The Grayzone that Australian media outlets often attempt to manipulate Chinese-Australians into echoing the official narrative on China.
“SBS, a television network funded by the [Australian] government called me for an interview on Chinese Muslims in Australia,” Michael told The Grayzone. “When I didn’t tell her what she wanted, she asked me if my family was held hostage, in danger or being coerced.”
“She wanted me to confirm her narrative that the Chinese government had operatives following me and were actively suppressing me in Australia,” continued Michael. “Anyway, she never called back.”
“There are more Chinese-Australians who’ve had similar experiences. They seem to cast a wide net and hope to get someone like Vicky Xu who will just confirm all their narratives.”
Far-right Christian fundamentalist publishes ‘forced labor’ report in NATO publication
The ASPI report followed two earlier studies. The first was authored by Adrian Zenz, senior fellow in China studies at the far-right Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which was established by the US government in 1983.
As Max Blumenthal and I previously reported for The Grayzone, Zenz is a far-right fundamentalist Christian who opposes homosexuality and gender equality, supports “scriptural spanking” of children, and believes he is “led by God” on a “mission” against China. Zenz is one of the main sources behind the claim that China is detaining millions of Uyghur Muslims, and he has been promoted as the “leading expert” on Xinjiang by Western media because of the damning claims he makes against the Chinese government.
However, a closer look at Zenz’s work reveals that he relies on extremely shoddy evidence and methodologies, including basing his detention estimate on a lone media report by an extremist television network that regularly hosts fanatical anti-Semites who describe China as “a nation of savages, worse than the Jews” and call for “armed jihad” against the country.
In December 2019, Zenz published a new “study” titled “Beyond the Camps: Beijing’s Long-Term Scheme of Coercive Labor, Poverty Alleviation and Social Control in Xinjiang”, in which he accuses China of implementing a forced “wage-labor” regime against Uyghurs as the “next step” in Beijing’s “grand scheme” against the ethnic minority. Zenz calls for a “strong response” from the international community, including the divestment of Western and other foreign companies from China.
However, as with his previous work, Zenz’s latest report is riddled with speculation, sensationalism, and incoherence. Zenz begins his article with the contention that this nefarious, coercive program is “being implemented under the […] guise of ‘poverty alleviation’” through higher-income work, only to later admit that the program, in fact, “achieve[s] national poverty reduction goals” and “promote[s] economic growth.”
Zenz maligns what he calls the Chinese government’s aims to ensure “poor households … have at least one person in stable employment” and promote full-time, paid employment. He argues that since China’s poverty alleviation efforts are “all-encompassing and involves literally every single citizen” it must necessarily be forced because he speculates that “not everyone will want to be part of this rigid plan.”
Zenz claims that the Chinese government aims to force every Uyghur and ethnic minority adult into slave labor and eliminate traditional rural livelihoods and culture. To support his incendiary claim, he cites a mundane municipal government document that calls for achieving poverty alleviation goals through vocational training and employment programs, as well as initiatives like “environmental protection programs,” “subsidies in monetary form or animals” for farmers, and “support [for] small-scale self-employment” or small businesses.
Zenz’s characterization of of the Chinese government’s programs for public childcare and educational services for the children of workers offers a revealing look at the propagandistic nature of his claims:
“While the parents are being herded into full-time work, their children are put into full-time (at least full day-time) education and training settings. This includes children below preschool age (infants and toddlers), so that ethnic minority women are being ‘liberated’ and ‘freed’ to engage in full-time wage labor. Notably, both factory and educational settings are essentially state-controlled environments that facilitate ongoing political indoctrination while barring religious practices. As a result, the dissolution of traditional, religious and family life is only a matter of time.”
Zenz describes full-time employment and childcare services as “inhibit[ing] intergenerational cultural transmission” and promoting “intergenerational separation and social control over family unity”. Citing a Chinese media report in which a mother describes how the childcare services “solved my problem, now there are people who take care of my children, I can in peace go to work … very convenient,” Zenz denounces this as a “shocking example of this ‘liberation’ of women from their children”.
A screen capture of a Chinese media report that Zenz includes in his study to illustrate the apparent horrors of childcare.
Unsurprisingly, Zenz’s flimsy research on “forced labor” has not been published in a reputable academic journal, but rather “The Journal of Political Risk,” a publication headed by former NATO and US national security state operatives.
The publication was founded by Anders Corr, whose bio describes him as “having worked for several consultancies and government agencies, including Booz Allen Hamilton, United States Army, United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), United States Special Operations Command Pacific (USSOCPAC), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the North American Treaty Organization (NATO).”
The editor of the publication is Neil Siviter, who “previously worked as a Junior Professional Fellow at the NATO Association of Canada,” and “has also held various internship positions with the Canadian Government [and] U.S. Consulate General Toronto.”
US militaristic think tank recycles shoddy research in ‘forced labor’ report
The final study accusing China of implementing “forced labor” programs against Uyghur Muslims was a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) entitled, “Connecting the Dots in Xinjiang: Forced Labor, Forced Assimilation, and Western Supply Chains”.
Like ASPI, CSIS is a militaristic think tank funded by the US government and a host of military allies including the UK, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Germany, Italy, and the EU. CSIS also receives significant funding from a number of weapons manufacturers, fossil fuel corporations, and banks.
In April 2019, Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal exposed a secret meeting hosted by CSIS, where US and Latin American officials discussed a possible military invasion of Venezuela. That November, The Grayzone’s Ben Norton reported that CSIS hosted a US congressional panel which outlined the next phase of Washington’s dirty war against Syria, including plans to occupy Syrian oil fields and block reconstruction of the country.
In its “forced labor” report, CSIS offers little to no new information, relying instead on the work of Adrian Zenz and undisclosed interviews with anonymous “detainees who were forced to work.”
While the Western public encounters stories about alleged “forced labor” as shocking journalistic exposés, they are, in fact, the direct product of an orchestrated PR campaign backed by US and EU governments, NATO, and arms manufacturers – all of which stand to benefit handsomely from the intensification of a new Cold War.
Autor: Ajit Singh is a lawyer and journalist. He is a contributing author to Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education: Common Concepts for Contemporary Movements (Brill: 2019). He tweets at @ajitxsingh.
The Western world, specifically the United States and the German-French-led European Union, have adopted two completely different strategies on the China issue. One of the reasons is that the rise of China has brought different historical contrasts to the West. In other words, the United States and the European Union have different perceptions of China’s rise in the 21st century.
The United States regards the relationship with China as “Cold War 2.0“, “decoupling” instead of “slowing down.” The European Union is different. Europeans understand that the rise of China is a return to historical normality rather than an unreasonable fantasy. Many Europeans say that countries with a population of over one billion people that have been leading the world in technology for thousands of years will not be hindered by temporary obstacles in economic development. China will not be domesticated. At best, it can only be integrated into the global order. In the best case, a global order that benefits everyone will be realized.
“Decoupling” and “incorporating” are two Western thinking patterns about China. The EU seems to understand China a bit more than the U.S. may be because the former has witnessed the development and glory of China over the centuries, which is different from the latter, a young country without real history and with full of opportunism, the rapid development makes the U.S. naturally underestimates and tries to suppress every competitor.
But the problem is that neither of these two models has been successfully balanced the relationship with China. Many cases can prove so, and one such case is Huawei. President Trump wants to sanction Huawei, and many European countries are is not prepared to directly participate in the process, but many of them try to implement other policies to set high technological and legal barriers for the Chinese telecom company to enter their markets. Nowadays, China can only invest in spare parts production by itself, many products are not allowed to sell or hard to sell without permission of the both authorities, so millions of Chinese engineering departments with excellent education start to accelerate independent innovation and production. In other words, the US’s technology sanctions along with Europe’s regulations against China or their intentions to get rid of dependence on China will eventually urge China to achieve technological autonomy.
The U.S. and the EU have already proved that China is an exception compared with other Asian countries who tried to be entirely independent on every issue but failed to maintain the belief during the competition with western countries. The new U.S. President Biden wants to correct some of the policies of his predecessors, for example, returning to international institutions, but the overall China policy remains unchanged, and the EU’s “integration faction” remains the dominating ideology. Based on this, there are currently two different China policies in the Western world. However, they are all based on wrong logical thinking since the beginning, the purpose of both strategies is to contain China’s rise but the rise of China is determined by the Chinese people instead of the foreign power, therefore no matter how both adjust the policies or measures against China, China will not sacrifice itself to achieve their goals.
Considering a big power as a competitor or a threat is very usual, but pulling down the competitor rather than focusing on self-development is meaningless. The reason that the U.S. and Europe set obstacles to China can be viewed as a negative way to maintain their advantages but China gives positive reactions proactively: keep the developing path, and help itself when no one gives a hand.
To achieve the goal, the United States and the European Union can also use a positive strategy to strengthen the cooperation and deepen the development, such as increasing research funding, reawakening the transatlantic free trade zone, etc. If Europe, the United States, and China can work together, their economic strength is sufficient to formulate new global standards, such as new technology, expropriation from global Internet giants, network security, and a series of environmental protection tools.
Neither “appeasement” nor “integration” is the keyword to face the challenges of the Chinese century. Here, the West should once again awaken a concept: unity, which needs to break the geopolitical border in this globalization era. China represents the rising force and willingness of the developing countries, and these countries will stand up one by one, how far the U.S. and Europe can go based on the outdated ideology?
Huawei hat am 22. Februar 2021 in China sein Flaggschiff Smartphone Mate X2 vorgestellt. Das neue Foldable-Design hat auf die alte Entwicklung verzichtet und orientiert sich stark am Innen-Foldable-Design von Samsung Z Fold 2. Aber Huawei bietet mehr Farben an.
Nach dem Aufklappen des Mate X2 mittels eines robusten Scharniers bekommen wir ein 8 Zoll OLED-Bildschirm mit 90-Hertz und der Auflösung von 2.480×2.200 Pixeln zu Gesicht. Das Seitenbildschirm hat eine 6,45 Zoll Größe mit der Auflösung von 2.700×1.160 Pixeln. Vorinstalliert wird das Handy mit EMUI 11.0, basierend auf Android 10, aber später aktualisierbar auf HamonyOS 2.0 im 2. Quartal 2021. Noch ausschlaggebender ist die mit Leica zusammen entwickelte Quad-Kamera: Der Primärsensor besitzt 50 Megapixel, eine f/1.9-Blende und optische Bildstabilisierung (OIS). Die 16-Megapixel-Ultraweitwinkelkamera kommt mit f/2.2-Blende. Zwei Telezoom-Linsen mit zwölf (f/2.4) respektive acht Megapixeln ( f/4.4) bieten dreifache beziehungsweise zehnfache Vergrößerung. Nicht sehr angenehm ist der Fingerabdruck auf der linken Seite am Rand.
Vorbestellung läuft jetzt schon und Auslieferung erst ab 25. Februar 2021 online in China auf der VMALL Webseite, und zugleich bei Taobao und JD Webshop. Der Preis für das Topmodell ist respektvoll, ab 17.999 YUAN (umgerechnet auf circa 2.250 EURO) mit 256G Internspeicher. Für 512G Internspeicher ergibt sich dann 1.000 YUAN (circa 125 EUR) Aufpreis. Bis 24.00 Uhr haben über 2,2 Millionen Kunden in China die Vorbestellungen getätigt.
Nach Analyse wird das Huawei Mate X2 in Europa ab 2.499 EURO erhältlich.
Dr. Maximilian Krah, Handelspolitischer Sprecher der AfD-Delegation im EU-Parlament, fordert die Europäische Union dazu auf, sich nicht in einen Handelskrieg mit Asien verwickeln zu lassen.
„Deutschland und Europa haben eigene Interessen und dürfen sich deshalb von den USA nicht in einen Kalten Krieg mit Asien ziehen lassen“, kommentiert Krah die brisante Lage. Denn jenseits des Atlantiks wächst die Wut über die „Zögerlichkeit“ Europas im Umgang mit China.
Mit einem Aufsatz im Fachmagazin „Foreign Policy“ hat der US-Außenpolitikexperte Daniel Bear, der mit Bidens Beraterteam exzellent vernetzt ist, kürzlich die Gemeinde der Transatlantiker in Berlin wachgerüttelt. Ein „europäisches Desinteresse an der Erneuerung eines kooperativen transatlantischen Ansatzes für gemeinsame Herausforderungen“ diagnostizierte Bear und mahnte: „Das Zeitfenster für eine Neuinvestition in die transatlantischen Beziehungen ist nicht unbegrenzt. Es ist an der Zeit, liebe Verbündete, dass ihr euch zusammenreißt.“
Krah hingegen fordert Selbstbewusstsein von den europäischen Politikern ein: „An der Souveränität deutscher und europäischer Interessen darf nicht gerüttelt werden,“ und weiter „deshalb sollten wir uns nicht an dem Kräftemessen der Amerikaner beteiligen.“
