Catherine Zhang

03/07/2023

Canada - China special rapporteur

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced that an independent special rapporteur will be appointed to investigate allegations of Chinese interference in the country's recent federal elections. The rapporteur will review classified reports on the 2019 and 2021 elections and make recommendations to improve future elections. While political rivals have called for a public inquiry, China has denied any interference and dismissed the claims as unfounded. Trudeau emphasized that reports challenging Canada's sovereignty are concerning, and he will appoint an independent rapporteur with a broad mandate to combat interference and enhance democracy. The identity of the rapporteur has not yet been disclosed, but Trudeau expects to appoint them shortly. Additionally, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (Nsicop) will review foreign interference and present its findings to parliament. Trudeau acknowledges that Canada has been aware of interference attempts by China, Russia, and Iran, among other non-state actors, for some time.

03/02/2023

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ended successfully. On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games was held.

DiNiGeEr YiLaMuJiang(迪妮格尔·衣拉木江), a cross-country skier from Xinjiang, embedded the last torch into the main torch platform and lit the main torch of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

In response, Zhao Lijian, spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, said that “the Beijing Winter Olympic Games were under way, and the political hype similar to maliciously slandering and smearing through the Winter Olympic Games was not true and not able to be successful”.

As witness see Chinese Coverage analysis on US Coverage, Zhu Di, from the point of view of journalism analysis 52 news stories and 3 opinion pieces from US coverages against Xinjiang. “By attributing the ultimate blame unanimously to government control and policy, the articles employed a resentment frame to portray China’s ethnic relationships and downplayed the severity of actual attacks.”

03/02/2023

Continuing distorting the facts of Xinjiang, the US uses re-education camps as a human right problem toward the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The white house press secretary Jen Psaki hold a press conference, “The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, given the PRC’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses”.

According to Pew Research Center survey data about Americans’ views of how United States citizens see China: “early half (46%) of Americans approve of the decision to hold a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics, compared with 22% who disapprove.”

That shows how international coverage in the US sometimes misses the story.

03/02/2023

An expert focusing on journalism in the Middle-east and Xinjiang. “The United States also has similar terrorist events, such as the 911 of the civil aircraft hijacked by terrorists organized by Osama Ben Laden in 2001.”

He replied to his opinion about what’s wrong with the US coverage.“The United States and China clearly have the same experience in targeting extremists. Why attack China?”

In this case, the United States' solution to 9 / 11 is to arrest and deal with Ben Laden and all the participants in the terrorist attacks led by him. Similarly, they are all foreign remote command and incitement, implemented by specific domestic organizations, premeditated and organized violent crimes.

Sociologist N.Elias analyzed that, “The news reports led by the United States later exaggerated the management of the Chinese government as an allegation of human rights exploitation.”

03/02/2023

An Italian reporter, Marco Respinti, who lives in the US right now responded, “From what I get from social media, the internet, or the newspaper. They tagged Xinjiang as ‘genocide’ and ‘forced labor’.”

The US State Department said in a report to Congress that it plans to step up pressure on China over what it called “horrific abuses” of ethnic minorities such as the Uighurs in Xinjiang. The US government will crack down on “forced Labour” in Xinjiang and counter “mass surveillance, forced population control and detention, and forced assimilation”.

“In most cases, the US media delivers: the Chinese government had captured documents and the United States used satellites to monitor houses that looked like prisons, so they judged that this was a place called “re-education camp”for ethnic minorities.” Respinti said. “They regarded the “re-education camp” as “a prison for mass internment of Muslim minorities.”

China has long insisted that mass ‘vocational education and training’ is necessary in far-western Xinjiang to counter terrorism and alleviate poverty. This is a network of detention centres which mostly house Muslim minorities and millions of workers have benefited from ‘education and vocational training.

The terrorist violence in Xinjiang belongs to the extremist behavior of individual ethnic minorities, which has nothing to do with all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

03/02/2023

An eruption of violent crime of beating, smashing, looting and burning occurred in a city in northwest China. As a result, many innocent people and an armed police were killed, a large number of people and armed police were injured, many vehicles were burned, and many shops were smashed and burned.

Most of these terrorists that led the attack on July 5 were Uyghurs, who live mainly in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. They are one of the major ethnic minorities in China which have the same rights and life as Han people.

The Chinese Community Party(CCP) has accused the Uyghurs involved in the violence of being terrorists working with foreign forces rather than ordinary people. Mayor of Urumqi Jiersha Yishamuding said, “They were ordered to smuggle weapons and organize terrorist attacks.”

News reports in the US focused on the stories of Uighurs, leaving western readers with a biased impression against them.

Following on office of international religious freedom of U.S Department of State, an official website of United States government, “the US State Department estimates up to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have passed through a sprawling network of detention centers across the region, where former detainees allege they were subjected to intense political indoctrination, forced labor, torture, and even sexual abuse.”

03/02/2023

The US’s Coverages Toward Xinjiang Related Issues

On July 5, 2009, violence swept through a northwest city in Xinjiang, leaving hundreds of bystanders and armed police killed, as Uyghurs, a major ethnic minority in China attacked local residents, burning vehicles and destroying shops.

The onslaught, which killed 156 people including children, has exemplified the daylight between the U.S. news outlets and Chinese-sponsored media over a growing humanitarian crisis. Having two varied and different versions of what’s happening will distort the truth and lead people in different countries to stereotype Chinese Uighurs. The world won’t recognize the crisis, and then more people will die. That shows how international coverage in the US sometimes misses the story. Or is it that governments like China that control the message or media often tell a more diluted story of what’s really happening.

“No matter who these terrorists see, they cut with knives.” The survivor of the July 5 incident, a 25-year-old Uyghur mentioned.

02/28/2023

People from all over the world on different social media platform gives more concerned about whether China and the United States will lose contact because of the cessation of “panda diplomacy”.

Early this month, XiJinPing and Biden met and held a meeting.

Rui Li, 31, Political PhD student in Columbia University said, “As China announced that it would no longer implement zero covid, economy, diplomacy and trade were gradually recovering.”

“If there is cooperation in other diplomatic strategies, and there are still three other zoos in the United States that have signed panda contracts with China, Memphis zoo will not negatively affect the bilateral relations if it does not renew the contract and leaves pandas.” Li said.

02/28/2023

But not all pandas are suffering the same situation with Lele and Yaya in Memphis zoo.

Compared with a 26 years old panda, Gao Gao, living in San Diego Zoo right now, is still healthy and chubby.

Mei, 52, is the Panda Behavior Researcher of Chengdu Panda Base, “Animals have the ability to choose the most suitable habitat for themselves, this is called The Fittest Survive. According to records, pandas were discovered more than 4600 years ago and have always been living in Sichuan Province, China.”

Mei explained reasons why the environment in China fits better for pandas. “The location, climate and humidity of Sichuan are the most comfortable living areas for pandas.”

“In particular, the bamboo they eat can only be grown in Sichuan Province. Even some other cities in China cannot grow natural bamboo. So in fact, the bamboo transported from across the country is certainly not as fresh as the local bamboo.” Mei said, “China has the most amount of pandas in the world, so China has the most research on pandas. We cannot require other countries to have advanced physical examination and equipment like us.”

Mei said she had no idea whether or not Lele and Yaya could come back next year. Like most posts and comments on Twitter, “The health problem of pandas in Memphis zoo is apparent, but it is the intense political relationship between US and China that makes people worried about.”

02/28/2023

What is Panda Diplomacy--

Sending pandas from China to other countries started as a “Panda Diplomacy” 50 years ago. In February 1972, after the historic reconciliation between China and the United States began, American zoos started to sign the contract and lease two pandas from China as a friendly relations. These animals are China's ambassadors, and this diplomatic strategy is also implemented in many countries.

With the impact of the economic crisis and the epidemic situation, the zoo cannot afford expensive expenses, including transporting fresh bamboo shoots from China, maintaining the living environment of pandas, breeding pandas, and providing them with physical examination and treatment. Therefore, the living environment of Lele and Yaya is becoming more and more serious.

A group of visitors reported that the living environment of the pandas was very bad, and there was not enough bamboo to eat and as have reportedly shown behaviors of mental and psychological diseases, too.

“Like other exhibition halls, the two panda halls are full of sh*t.” Addison Mills, a visitor in the United States said disappointedly.

Adison Mills visited Memphis Zoo on July 6th with three children and found the animal grounds in each exhibition hall to be very dirty and disgusting.

02/28/2023

Can we get a quote from the petition or the animal rights group?

Petitioners are proposing that China and the United States stop signing the lease renewal agreement in April 2023 and es**rt pandas home for treatment. Even singer and songwriter, Billie Eilish, has also teamed up with animal welfare groups to call for the retirement of Memphis Zoo pandas YaYa and Lele.

The contract between China and the US for the two pandas expires in 2023.

In 2003, Yaya and Lele left Chengdu, China, for Tennessee State in the United States. The term of the first agreement was 10 years, and it was extended for another 10 years after the expiration of 2013. Their arrival has made Memphis Zoo one of the only four zoos in the United States that can display giant pandas, bringing considerable income to Memphis Zoo.

According to the data shown in Memphis Zoo official website, Memphis Zoo displayed a panda for five weeks during the summer of 1987, resulting in a significant increase in visitors during the 1987-1988 Fiscal Year. During this period, the zoo's attendance rate increased by 81.0%.

Furthermore, according to the Morey and Associates May Memphis Zoo Visitor Survey in 2002, approximately 59.0 percent of non-resident visitors stated that visiting the Zoo was their primary reason for visiting Memphis.

Memphis Zoo staff estimated the impact of the acquisition of pandas on attendance from FY2003 to FY2012, it is estimated that the panda loan will increase the number of visitors to Memphis Zoo by 187500 over the next ten years, which is 29.1% more than the number of visitors in FY2002.

02/28/2023

Lele, panda for diplomacy between US and China, was died in Memphis zoo this month.

On Wednesday, a user posted photos of the skinny and sickly pandas in a zoo in the United States on social media. The harsh environment attracts people's attention and concern.

Photos of skinny and sickly pandas at the Memphis Zoo have captured attention on social media over the living conditions and well-being of the animals.

Both the management at the zoo and the Chinese government have denied that the two pandas, Lele and Yaya, have been malnourished eating dried bamboo and drinking muddy water despite daily photos by visitors and real-time pictures on the official zoo website.

“They looked very healthy,” said Matt Thompson, principal of the Memphis Zoo. While the Chinese Zoological Association responded by saying that, “Yaya was 22 years old, and had always suffered from skin diseases” with her hair sparse seasonally.

But the images have caused a public outcry, calling for the end of a 10-year contract and to have the pandas returned back to China. At least 87,000 people worldwide have signed a petition run by Animal Protection Organization based in California, calling for Memphis Zoo to return suffering pandas back to China for better living environment and physical treatment.

02/28/2023

This is my Linkedin File, waiting for you to connect!

I have a definite career path that focuses on journalism with the supplement of digital media. So all of my profile, posts, works, and experiences are related to journalism and media. I want to show that I am someone who has practical and amazing digital media skills in editing photojournalism, writ...