Schedium

Rumours about the arrest of Chinese model and actress Fan Bingbing on charges of tax evasion have spread on Chinese media. As Apple Daily reports, celebrity Fan Bingbing and her younger brother Fan Chengcheng have allegedly been detained for taking part in a tax evasion scheme alongside her manager, Mu Xiaoguang. Mu has also allegedly been charged with destroying incriminating evidence. On May 28 TV anchor Cui Yongyuan posted on Weibo a contract that showed Fan Bingbing being paid $1.56 million (RMB10 million) for four days’ work on director Feng Xiaogang's film “Cell Phone 2.”  Later Cui released another contract worth $7.8 million (RMB50 million) for the same work. He alleged that Fan had declared to tax authorities only the first contract, thus avoiding to pay taxes on the second, larger amount.  Double-contracts for the purpose of tax evasion are known in China as "yin-yang contracts".  Although the Chinese government censored Cui's ...

On September 24, 2017, scuffles erupted between pro-independence and pro-China demonstrators on the campus of National Taiwan University (NTU) during the Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival .  The event, co-sponsored by a mainland Chinese reality show and the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs, was part of the memorandums of understanding on cultural and arts events signed by Shanghai and Taipei.  Pro-independence supporters viewed the music festival as a covert tactic by the Chinese Communist regime to promote their " reunification " political agenda. Students organized protests against the event, but pro-China groups intervened and clashes broke out between the two sides.  Members of the Party for the Promotion of Chinese Unification (中華統一促進黨, PPCU),  founded by the notorious Taiwanese gangster Chang An-lo, attacked pro-independence students. Three people were injured.  Embed from Getty Images In December of last year the Taipei Di...

Poland is considering taking in more immigrant labour. The ruling right-wing Law and Justice party , however, wants to open up the country only to Christian workers.  Poland is one of Europe's most anti-immigrant countries. A survey released last December by the Polish Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS) showed that 63% of respondents did not want to receive refugees, while only 33% were in favour. The Polish government has refused to accept any refugees under the quota system set by the European Commission. The anti-immigration sentiment of the majority of the Polish population is directed mostly against Muslims.  Embed from Getty Images Although it refuses to take in refugees, Poland suffers from a severe labour shortage  and is in desperate need of foreign workers to sustain economic development. According to a survey conducted in January by Work Service SA, half of Polish companies cannot fill vacancies, and almost two-thirds of public-se...

In 2014 anti-China riots erupted in Vietnam , resulting in over a dozen casualties. Thousands of demonstrators burnt and ransacked factories which they believed to be Chinese property.  The protests were sparked by a diplomatic incident following Beijing 's announcement on May 3 that it was planning to move its first deep-water drilling rig into a location 240 kilometers (150 miles) off Vietnam’s coast, an area which both countries claim as part of their territory. On May 4 a spokesperson for Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry criticized the move, saying that the oil rig was within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. “All activities of foreign countries in Vietnam’s waters without Vietnam’s permission are illegal and worthless," he stated.  Embed from Getty Images Many Vietnamese were furious about what they perceived as Chinese aggression. Both China and Vietnam are Communist dictatorships. However, in the wake of market-oriented reforms nation...

On July 16 the Hong Kong police notified Andy Chan Ho-tin (陳浩天), the founder and leader of the Hong Kong National Party (香港民族黨, HKNP), that his party might be banned  for threatening China's "national security."  Hong Kong Secretary of Security John Lee Ka-chiu (李家超) said at a press conference that any Hong Kong-based society may be banned in order to protect national security and public order, or to protect the rights and freedoms of others. Protecting national security means safeguarding the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the People's Republic of China, he added.  Embed from Getty Images Andy Chan was given 21 days to submit a written reply to the Secretary of Security, explaining why the HKNP should not be outlawed.  On July 26 Mr. Chan told Hong Kong-based newspaper HK01 that the previous day he had sent a letter to the Security Bureau (保安局) requesting to be given 2 months, instead of only 21 days, to respond to the government. ...

The government in Taipei has expressed its determination to stand up to China after 44 airlines  bowed to pressure from Beijing and stopped listing Taiwan as a separate country.  On July 25 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper  People's Daily announced that American Airlines, United, Delta, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific as well as forty other airlines had complied with a request filed by the Civil Aviation Administration of China  on April 25 to list Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as part of Chinese territory.    Embed from Getty Images American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson told the BBC that the company was implementing changes to address China 's request. "Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate," she stated. In a written statement Cathay Pacific explained that as an airline registered and based in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China (...

A Chinese woman has been allegedly taken to a psychiatric hospital after she splashed ink on a poster of President Xi Jinping. Dong Yaoqiong, a 29-year-old Chinese woman from Hunan Province, hit the headlines on July 4 after she live-streamed herself  splashing ink on a poster of the country's leader in Shanghai. In the video, which she posted on Twitter and soon went viral, she said that she opposed Xi Jinping's despotic one-man rule and the Communist Party's oppressive mind control.  Another tweet sent later that day from her account showed three police officers, two uniformed and one in plainclothes, standing outside her home. Dong subsequently disappeared, and her Twitter account under the handle @feefeefly was deactivated. In the meantime her account has been reactivated, but only the posts prior to the ink-spraying video are visible.  Embed from Getty Images On July 18 authorities in China 's Guangdong Province detained artist and political acti...

Taiwan Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office via Wikimedia Commons A Taiwanese businessman named Lin Weilin (林偉琳) has been accused of spying on behalf of China's government in order to pay off his debt.  According to Taiwanese media reports, the 39-year-old Lin served as a petty officer in Taiwan's marine corps, but he resigned his post in 2000 and moved to mainland China . In Suzhou, a major city in southeastern Jiangsu Province, he pursued a career in business and cultivated ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  Lin joined various Communist organizations aimed at promoting Beijing's goal of unification with Taiwan. He became president of the Suzhou-Taiwan Youth Association, vice president of the Suzhou-Taiwan Investment Association, and committee member of the Youth Federation. He also took part in a training course organized by the Communist Youth League of China .  Lin established two businesses, one in 2011 and another one in 2016. But he ...

In August 2015 human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was arrested by the Chinese authorities and charged with subversion of state power. Wang's detention was part of a large scale crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists that has become known as the " 709 crackdown ". The wave of repression that began in July of that year was seen as yet another sign of President Xi Jinping 's desire to tighten the Communist Party's grip on society.  Embed from Getty Images For three years nothing was heard of Wang Quanzhang, and his family did not know what had happened to him. On April 11 Wang's wife, Li Wenzu , sent out a message saying that she had been placed under house arrest . "Last night I was forcibly returned home by Domestic Security," she wrote. "The people who are monitoring us were already at their posts, about 30 of them downstairs ... They include Domestic Security, Neighborhood Committee, and 'Chaoyang Aunties' [women who ...

A Hong Kong pro-independence party may be outlawed if it fails to meet a government request to explain within 21 days why it should not be banned.  The Hong Kong National Party (香港民族黨, HKNP) was founded  on March 28, 2016, by Andy Chan Ho-tin (陳浩天), who was then a 26-year-old engineering and business administration student at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). Although the Party did not have more than 50 members, its formation angered the central government in Beijing.  A spokesperson for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council  told state-run Xinhua that the newly established pro-independence party harmed "national sovereignty and security, as well as Hong Kong's prosperity and stability," and that it violated the Constitution, the Basic Law and relevant regulations.    Embed from Getty Images On July 17 Chan disclosed that two police inspectors went to his home early that morning and handed him a thick ...

A pro-China Taiwanese army officer has resigned in protest against Taiwan 'separatism'.  Ch'iu Yü-hung (邱裕弘), an infantry platoon leader of the Taiwanese army, resigned due to what he described as 'separatism' (分離主義). In a Facebook post that followed his resignation, he stated his belief in Chinese unification and his opposition to Taiwan independence. Ch'iu wrote that he chose to pursue a career in the military because he believed that the Republic of China was "not only a thing of the past," but that it was "still important for the future of a united China." Embed from Getty Images The Republic of China  (ROC) was founded in 1912 in mainland China . At that time Taiwan was part of the Japanese Empire . During the Nationalist era  (1927-1949) the ROC was governed dictatorially by the  Guomindang (Chinese Nationalist Party) under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek . At the end of World War II, the Allies pledged to return T...

Taiwan may ban the public display of the Five-star Red Flag of the People's Republic of China  (PRC). In recent months a number of Taiwanese organizations such as the Taiwan Society (台灣社),  the Taiwan Society North (台灣北社), and the Taiwan Constitutional Society (台灣憲法協會), have called on the Taiwanese government to outlaw the public display of the PRC flag on grounds of national security. Embed from Getty Images China views Taiwan as part of its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to achieve "reunification." Beijing has urged the Taiwanese government to acknowledge the so-called " 1992 consensus ," yet Taipei has refused to yield to pressure from the Communist regime. In October 2017 a petition to ban the public display of the Chinese flag garnered over 7,000 signatures, surpassing the 5,000 signature threshold that requires Taiwan's Ministry of Justice to issue a response. The petition requested that the Criminal Code b...

Hong Kong University (by Adon3465 via Wikimedia Commons) Chinese websites sell fake diplomas of major Hong Kong universities that even experts cannot recognize as forgeries. According to Hong Kong-based newspaper HK01 , there are a large number of websites in mainland China that sell fake diplomas of Hong Kong's eight major universities. An HK01 reporter asked Chong Yiu Kwong (莊耀洸), a Solicitor and Teaching Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Alexa Chow (周綺萍), a Human Resources Consultant, to examine two diplomas. One was a fake 2017 bachelor's degree in business administration from Hong Kong University (HKU), which the journalist had purchased from a Chinese website for 1,200 RMB. The other one was a real 2014 diploma from HKU. Both Chong Yiu Kwong, who is also a HKU alumnus, and Alexa Chow mistook the fake one for authentic. Ms. Chow explained that there are is no standard for how diplomas should look like. Their layout, colour, size and pa...

On July 27, 2017, China’s State Council announced that “ foreign garbage ”, including "plastic waste from living sources, paper, textile waste, and vanadium slag," would be banned from entering the country.  On July 18 Beijing had already notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that by the end of the year it would no longer accept shipments of those types of waste. According to state-run Xinhua News Agency , China began to import solid waste as raw materials in the 1980s to meet its domestic demand for resources. However, some companies allegedly engaged in smuggling foreign garbage into the country for profit, "damaging the environment and public health." The Chinese authorities believe that imported solid waste poses "a serious threat to the environment" and has caused "widespread public concern." By the end of 2019 China will gradually phase out the import of "solid waste for which substitute resources are available in Chin...