Category: Law
China’s Defense of Palestinians’ Right to Armed Resistance Gets Muted Response in Israel, Welcomed by Both Hamas and Iran
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and its Iranian backers both welcomed a strongly-worded statement delivered late last week at the International Court of Justice that said Palestinians' use of force to "resist foreign oppression" is an "inalienable right." Beijing's top diplomat for ...
Misadventures in the Skin Trade
This week I spent a few days in Cape Town, in time for a minor, if telling, crisis in international agricultural trade. A ship crammed with 19,000 (mostly still living) cows was stuck in Cape Town harbor, en route from Brazil to the Middle East.
Türkiye Detains Six Suspected of Spying on Uyghurs for China
Türkiye's intelligence agency detained six people suspected of spying on ethnic Uyghurs who have fled persecution in China, state media reports said Tuesday. A seventh person is wanted but remained at large, the reports said, without specifying the suspects' nationalities.
Ghanaian Police Search for Attackers of Chinese-Owned Mine
A large manhunt is underway in central Ghana for at least 15 assailants who robbed a Chinese-owned mine on Friday night in the rural farming town of Akyem Kokoaso. At least five Chinese miners were shot during the assault, with three left ...
U.S. Bill Targets China’s Critical Mineral Stake
U.S. senators introduced legislation that would make federal agencies regularly track critical mineral and rare earth deposits around the world and who controls them. The Critical Minerals Security Act of 2024 would highlight when a deposit is controlled by “a foreign ...
Chinese Embassy in Namibia Exploits Workers: Activist
China’s embassy in Namibia rejected allegations by a labor activist that Namibian staff are consistently underpaid and exploited. Michael Amushelelo (a leader in the socialist Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters movement) wrote in a Facebook post that the embassy grossly underpays workers, refuses to ...
“Strong Indication” Safety Violation Led to Massive Fire at Chinese-Owned Nickel Factory, Says Indonesia
Indonesian authorities suggested that safety violations and negligence may be responsible for a fire at a Chinese-owned nickel smelter last month that killed 21 workers. The massive blaze erupted at a furnace in a smelter operated by Tsingshan Stainless Steel Indonesia, ...
Chinese Media Reaction to Aisha Huang’s Sentencing Focuses on the Lack of Effective Governance in Ghana
Online media reaction to this week's sentencing of Chinese national Aisha Huang, aka "The Galamsey Queen," by the High Court in Ghana to four and a half years in prison for running a vast illegal mining operation was predictably subdued. Generally speaking, ...
Ghanaian Court Jails the Notorious Chinese “Galamsey Queen” for Illegal Mining
Aisha Huang will spend the next four and a half years in a Ghanaian jail cell after the Accra High Court handed down a ruling on Monday that dominated the news in the West African country. Huang, who was known as the ...
U.S. Lawmakers Weigh Sanctions, Criminal Charges Against Chinese Companies Over Child Cobalt Mining in DR Congo
U.S. legislators are proposing much stricter measures to counter China's dominance of the cobalt supply chain, including sanctions that would restrict the import of any cobalt mined by Chinese companies in the DR Congo. The proposed law by New Jersey ...
How Illegal African Timber Ends Up in Home Depot
At least 1.2 million doors sold to U.S. consumers between 2017 and 2022 at the massive home improvement chain Home Depot came from threatened forests in Equatorial Guinea via China. This is the finding of a new Environmental Investigation Agency report on the trade in okoume, a kind ...
Chinese Company Exports Illegal Timber Worth Millions from DRC Despite Ban: Report
Congo King Baisheng Forestry Development, a Chinese-owned timber company, exported $5 million worth of illegally logged timber in the first six months of 2023 alone, according to a new report by Global Witness. The NGO used satellite imagery to show that the company kept logging in the ...