John Ai

Registering over 6,500 as of October 2022, they come from Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in search of better ecomomic opportunities and fleeing regime repression. They arrive in Ecuador without a visa and continue their crossing from there. Some, however, once they obtain visas, are recruited by the Party for actions against other dissidents.

Visiting temples to ask for a job is becoming popular among young Chinese. Although the economy is recovering from the pandemic, one in five young people are currently out of work. As an alternative, Chinese authorities are encouraging new graduates to accept manual jobs.

The National People's Congress has broadened the scope of the law by also giving the police more powers to inspect smartphones and computers. Recently, police raided the offices of international companies in China. A few weeks ago, a Japanese employee was arrested.

China’s parliament and main advisory body are set to start their annual meeting. The government reshuffle will be made official. Xi Jinping's third term should strengthen his position. Further centralisation of the decision-making process is expected.

This is the first celebration in three years after zero-Covid restrictions were lifted. Families gather and crowds fill buses, trains, and plains. The number of infections is still high, hospitals are full, and funeral homes are working overtime. The authorities have shifted the focus to economic growth and boosted online censorship.

Lockdowns and mass testing are set aside after a series of protests broke out in late November. The authorities give in to social and economic pressures. Hospitals are overwhelmed putting the healthcare system under extreme pressure. People run in pharmacies to buy medicines and masks.

As repression intensified following anti-lockdown rallies last weekend, police target activists. Universities send students home. Official media continue to be silent while propaganda on social media rises. Spam floods Twitter while porn is used to stop discussions about what is going on.

Protests against the zero-COVID policy have spread across the country, including university campuses, becoming the most impressive since 1989. Despite the impact on the economy and household income, Chinese authorities have ignored people’s demands. Riot police go into action. Many protests are inspired by a one-man protest before the 20th party congress in Beijing.

Becoming an online sensation, the lone warrior displayed banners attacking the president in Beijing. The rare initiative comes amid heightened security measures in the capital. The authorities are trying to censor all information about the demonstration. Popular discontent grows, but those who oppose Xi, run great risks.

The megacity of Chengdu has announced the shutdown after a scorching heat wave and repeated power outages. Mass shutdowns also occurred in Chongqing and Shenzhen. Web user who had predicted the restrictions at the beginning of the week was arrested for "creating unrest".

She Zhijiang was arrested in Thailand and is awaiting extradition to his homeland. Online casinos and fake sites thrive along the "Belt and Road" using "personnel" trafficked from China and Southeast Asian countries. Because of the "zero covid" policy, criminal gangs recruit more and more people from Taiwan, which in the absence of diplomatic relations has difficulty retrieving its citizens.

According to analysts, to modernise the Chinese military needs people with specialised skills. Beijing's new White Paper on Taiwan envisages reunification with less autonomy than previously offered to the island.