Is Xi Jinping on his way out, or consolidating power?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
Myanmar military courts cracks down on human trafficking, 12 sentenced to life imprisonment
Myanmar's military courts have sentenced 12 individuals, including five Chinese nationals, to life in prison for human trafficking offences, including forced marriages and online sex tape distribution, state media reported Saturday. read more According to state-run media on Saturday, Myanmar military courts have sentenced twelve people, five of whom are Chinese, to life in jail for their roles in several human trafficking cases. The convictions are related to a variety of offences, such as the trafficking of Myanmar women into forced marriages in China and the online dissemination of sex tapes, the Myanma Alinn newspaper reported. In one case, a military court in Yangon, the nation's largest city, sentenced five individuals, including two Chinese nationals known as Lin Te and Wang Xiaofeng, to life in prison on July 29. They were convicted of creating sex tapes featuring three Myanmar couples and posting the footage online for financial gain in violation of Myanmar's Anti-Trafficking in Persons law. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In a separate case, the same court sentenced a woman and three Chinese nationals, Yibo, Cao Qiu Quan and Chen Huan. The group was convicted of planning to transport two Myanmar women, recently married to two of the convicted Chinese men, into China, the report said. Additionally, three other people received life sentences from a separate military court for selling a woman as a bride to China, and for attempting to do the same with another woman. In another case, a woman from Myanmar's central Magway region was given a 10-year sentence on July 30 for planning to transport two Myanmar women to be sold as brides to Chinese men, the report said. Human trafficking, particularly of women and girls lured or forced into marriages in China, remains a widespread problem in Myanmar, a country still reeling from civil war after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The persisting conflict in most areas of Myanmar has left millions of women and children vulnerable to exploitation. A 2018 report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) — which works to prevent and respond to trafficking in northern Kachin and Shan states bordering China — estimated that about 21,000 women and girls from northern Myanmar were forced into marriage in China between 2013 and 2017. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In its latest report published in December, KWAT noted a sharp decline in the number of trafficking survivors accessing its services from 2020 to 2023. It attributed the decline to the COVID-19 pandemic and border closures caused by ongoing conflict following the army takeover. However, it reported a resurgence in 2024 as people from across Myanmar began migrating to China in search of work. Maj-Gen Aung Kyaw Kyaw, a deputy minister for Home Affairs, said during a June meeting that the authorities had handled 53 cases of human trafficking, forced marriage and prostitution in 2024, 34 of which involved China, according to a report published by Myanmar's Information Ministry. The report also said that a total of 80 human trafficking cases, including 14 involving marriage deception by foreign nationals, were recorded between January and June this year.
Economic Times
3 hours ago
- Economic Times
Tibet's Yarlung Zangbo Dam: China's new tool for environmental destruction, Brahmaputra domination
Synopsis China has commenced construction on the Motuo Hydropower Station in Tibet, raising concerns in South Asia. The project, estimated at USD 170 billion, could give Beijing control over the Brahmaputra River, impacting millions downstream. India and Bangladesh have voiced concerns about potential water weaponization and ecological damage, while activists decry exploitation. ANI Tibet's Yarlung Zangbo Dam: China's new tool for environmental destruction, Brahmaputra domination China has begun construction on what it claims will be the world's largest hydropower project, the Motuo Hydropower Station, deep in the politically sensitive region of Tibet. Costing an estimated USD 170 billion and projected to generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually (roughly the amount consumed by the UK in a year), the dam is raising serious alarm across South to The Institute for Energy Research (IER), the Motuo project will consist of five cascade hydropower stations in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, which becomes the Brahmaputra once it crosses into India and then Bangladesh. This gives Beijing direct control over a vital transboundary river that supports millions downstream and effectively hands China a dangerous new geopolitical weapon.A 2020 report by the Lowy Institute, cited by IER, warned that "control over these rivers effectively gives China a chokehold on India's economy." Experts now fear the Yarlung Zangbo could be used as a "water bomb," either draining the Brahmaputra during dry seasons or triggering devastating floods in India's Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states. Indigenous groups like the Adi tribe, who rely on the Siang River, one of the Brahmaputra's upper tributaries, stand to lose local ecosystem in the region, among the richest in the Himalayas, could be irreversibly damaged. Both India and Bangladesh have voiced formal concerns, with India reportedly exploring a countermeasure: a buffer dam on the Siang to offset sudden Chinese water discharges. IER notes that for China, this mega-project is about more than electricity. It serves Beijing's wider goals of industrialising Tibet and exporting power eastward to China's urban centres under the "xidiandongsong" policy, literally, "sending western electricity east." But activists and Tibetans see a darker motive: exploitation masked as development. Just last year, hundreds of Tibetan protesters were rounded up, beaten, and arrested for opposing another hydropower China's climate pledges of a carbon peak by 2030 and net-zero by 2060, IER argues the Motuo Dam is less about clean energy and more about strategic leverage. With glacial melt driving the river's flow, seasonal variability could undermine energy output. Still, Beijing appears undeterred, treating the project more as a geopolitical instrument than an environmental IER concludes, the Motuo dam exemplifies China's readiness to weaponise water, putting regional security, ecological balance, and human rights at grave risk.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Tibet's Yarlung Zangbo Dam: China's new tool for environmental destruction, Brahmaputra domination
China has commenced construction on the Motuo Hydropower Station in Tibet, raising concerns in South Asia. The project, estimated at USD 170 billion, could give Beijing control over the Brahmaputra River, impacting millions downstream. India and Bangladesh have voiced concerns about potential water weaponization and ecological damage, while activists decry exploitation. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads China has begun construction on what it claims will be the world's largest hydropower project, the Motuo Hydropower Station , deep in the politically sensitive region of Tibet. Costing an estimated USD 170 billion and projected to generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually (roughly the amount consumed by the UK in a year), the dam is raising serious alarm across South to The Institute for Energy Research (IER), the Motuo project will consist of five cascade hydropower stations in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, which becomes the Brahmaputra once it crosses into India and then Bangladesh. This gives Beijing direct control over a vital transboundary river that supports millions downstream and effectively hands China a dangerous new geopolitical weapon.A 2020 report by the Lowy Institute, cited by IER, warned that "control over these rivers effectively gives China a chokehold on India's economy." Experts now fear the Yarlung Zangbo could be used as a "water bomb," either draining the Brahmaputra during dry seasons or triggering devastating floods in India's Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states. Indigenous groups like the Adi tribe, who rely on the Siang River, one of the Brahmaputra's upper tributaries, stand to lose local ecosystem in the region, among the richest in the Himalayas, could be irreversibly damaged. Both India and Bangladesh have voiced formal concerns, with India reportedly exploring a countermeasure: a buffer dam on the Siang to offset sudden Chinese water notes that for China, this mega-project is about more than electricity. It serves Beijing's wider goals of industrialising Tibet and exporting power eastward to China's urban centres under the "xidiandongsong" policy, literally, "sending western electricity east." But activists and Tibetans see a darker motive: exploitation masked as last year, hundreds of Tibetan protesters were rounded up, beaten, and arrested for opposing another hydropower China's climate pledges of a carbon peak by 2030 and net-zero by 2060, IER argues the Motuo Dam is less about clean energy and more about strategic leverage. With glacial melt driving the river's flow, seasonal variability could undermine energy output. Still, Beijing appears undeterred, treating the project more as a geopolitical instrument than an environmental IER concludes, the Motuo dam exemplifies China's readiness to weaponise water, putting regional security, ecological balance, and human rights at grave risk.
