Hong Kong rights group shuts down after years of advocating for workers
A Hong Kong group that advocated for workers rights for decades announced its shutdown abruptly on Thursday, citing financial difficulties and debt issues.
China Labor Bulletin planned to stop updating its website content and appeared to have deleted Facebook and Instagram social media accounts used by the nonprofit rights organization.
'The company can no longer maintain operations and has decided to dissolve and initiate the relevant procedures,' it said in a statement on an archived web page Friday.
Founded in 1994, organization maintained a database tracking workers' strikes, protests, workplace accidents and other labor rights incidents in China.
As dozens of civil society groups disbanded or left Hong Kong in the wake of the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law, China Labor Bulletin continued providing valuable resources for journalists and academics in the southern Chinese city.
Critics say the drastic political changes in Hong Kong indicated the decline of Western-style civil liberties that China promised to keep intact when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. However, Beijing and Hong Kong governments insisted the law was crucial to bring stability to the city following massive anti-government protests in 2019.
China Labor Bulletin's founder Han Dongfang, a former railway worker who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. He told the Central News Agency of Taiwan that the shutdown was his decision and he would stay in Hong Kong.
Han's decision appeared sudden to many Hong Kong civil society observers. Three weeks ago, he wrote on social media platform LinkedIn about his work anniversary and his team's progress.
'Let's keep our faith up at this abnormal time and continue our important work,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Ford forced to shutter factories amid worrying parts shortages: 'Hand-to-mouth right now'
China's trade leverage temporarily shuttered one of Detroit's biggest brands. Ford's CEO, Jim Farley, said his company doesn't have enough rare-earth magnets, forcing the automaker to halt some production lines. 'It's day to day,' the top boss said in a Friday interview with Bloomberg News. 'We have had to shut down factories. It's hand-to-mouth right now.' Ford's production struggles are part of the ongoing tit-for-tat trade escalation between Washington and Beijing. But the company is expecting relief in the coming weeks. In April, Chinese officials stopped the flow of magnets into the US — a critical component found in nearly every modern car's brake pads, seats, windshield wipers, and batteries. The pause came in response to President Donald Trump's then-145 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports. The throttled magnet trade threatened to strangle production plants and empty car dealership lots, sending automakers and industry groups into a tizzy. In May, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation — which represents major US automakers — sent a letter to President Trump warning that China's response could paralyze car production. 'Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components,' the letter, signed by the group's president, John Bozzella, said. 'In severe cases, this could include the need for reduced production volumes or even a shutdown of vehicle assembly lines.' Later that month, workers at Ford's Chicago plant, where the company builds the popular Explorer SUV, were told to go home due to the magnet shortage. But as Ford continues to scramble for parts, the company is now expecting a reopening of the supply spigot. American and Chinese trade negotiators have announced a tentative agreement that lowers tariff rates and resumes magnet exports. The deal includes temporary export licenses for rare-earth suppliers. Those licenses will allow magnet shipments to resume to the top three US automakers — including Ford — as soon as this month. China's President Xi Jinping has not officially signed the deal, but President Trump posted on Truth Social that the agreement was 'done.' Industry analysts confirmed to that rare-earth magnets will likely be exempt from American tariffs under the new deal. A standard gas-powered vehicle requires around a half-pound of rare earth magnets CEO Jim Farley confirmed that Ford had temporarily shuttered some of its plants because of China's magnet pause Ford produces over 80 percent of its SUVs and trucks for the US market in American plants Still, as the pipeline starts back up, Farley's announcement underscores China's current leverage over American manufacturing. The US once refined its own rare-earth magnets for vehicle assembly, with facilities operating across dozens of Midwestern states. But 20 years ago, the last domestic refinement plant — located in Indiana — shut down. China, which now controls more than 90 percent of global rare-earth processing capacity, filled the gap. American automakers are now looking elsewhere for supply, including Australia, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. 'Should the US-China trade deal be upheld by both sides, US automakers should be able to secure enough rare earths to continue their production as scheduled,' Seth Goldstein, a vehicle analyst at Morningstar, told 'I would guess all US automakers are looking to secure alternate rare earths supply outside of China as a way to protect themselves from the potential that China may halt exports again in the future.'
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Boeing resumes China deliveries with 787-9 jet to Juneyao Airlines, Yicai reports
BEIJING/HONG KONG, June 14 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab delivered a new 787-9 aircraft to China's Juneyao Airlines ( opens new tab on Saturday, Chinese media outlet Yicai reported, as trade tensions between Beijing and Washington ease. The delivery comes two days after a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board crashed in a fireball shortly after takeoff in western India. Boeing and Juneyao Airlines did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment on the Yicai report. The U.S. aerospace giant had suspended new aircraft deliveries to China in April as President Donald Trump's tariff war escalated between the world's two largest economies. Boeing said at the end of May that deliveries would resume this month after the tariffs were temporarily scaled back for 90 days. China and the U.S. concluded two days of negotiations in London on Tuesday to resolve key trade issues in the two superpowers' bruising tariff war, where negotiators from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework covering tariff rates. On Monday, a new Boeing 737 MAX painted in the livery of Xiamen Airlines landed in China, adding to signs that the planemaker was resuming deliveries to China. The country represents about 10% of Boeing's commercial backlog and is an important and growing aviation market. Boeing had previously said customers in China would not take delivery of new planes due to the tariffs and that it was looking to resell potentially dozens of aircraft.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Millions expected to attend ‘No Kings' protests during Trump's military parade
Millions of Americans are expected to attend 'No Kings' protests during President Donald Trump 's military parade Saturday. Trump is holding a parade with thousands of soldiers, tanks and warplanes in Washington D.C. to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday — which also falls on the president's 79th birthday. In a show of opposition to Trump and his agenda, including his mass deportations of immigrants, more than 2,000 protests in all 50 states are planned. Notably, no demonstrations against the Trump administration are scheduled for Washington, D.C. A website made for the mass demonstrations reads: 'In America, we don't do kings. They've defied out courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services,' referring to the Trump administration. 'The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings,' the website read. An organizer of the protests, Ezra Levin, co-founder of the anti-Trump organization Indivisible, called Saturday an 'inflection point' during an interview with MSNBC's Jen Psaki. ' This is an opportunity to send a very clear message that democracy is gonna reassert itself, and that's a message, not to Donald Trump. He's the least important figure tomorrow,' Levin said. He continued: 'That's a message to the marginal figures in our democracy, whether they're leaders or they're institutions who are trying to decide how to behave today, and they need to know that the people are gonna reassert democracy.' While the protests were already in the works before anti-ICE raid demonstrations erupted in Los Angeles last Friday and subsequently in other major cities, Trump's response to those demonstrations has given Saturday's protesters even more fuel. In an unprecedented move, Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines in Los Angeles to quell the protests. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who sued the Trump administration over the move, called it a 'brazen abuse of power.' When Trump was asked earlier this week about the 'No Kings' protests, he said, ' I don't feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.'
