Overseas Chinese police service centers on five continents face scrutiny.
Welcome to VOA Asia Weekly. I'm Chris Casquejo in Washington. That story is coming up, but first, making headlines.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Sunday. Pyongyang said numerous recent missile tests were designed to simulate showering South Korea with tactical nuclear weapons.
Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen warned China that the island would never give up its democratic way of life in a national day speech where she drew parallels with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. China sees Taiwan as a renegade province to be brought under Beijing’s control.
Mental health officers helped families of the victims from last week’s mass shooting in a Thailand day care center that killed 36 people including 24 children. Workers set up in tents near the site of a mass cremation ceremony.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Bali bombings memorial sites in Kuta and Sydney to commemorate the 20th anniversary on Wednesday. The Al-Qaeda linked attack killed more than 200 people, including 88 Australians.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on corruption charges Wednesday, adding three years to her current sentence, extending her sentence to 26 years for previous convictions.
Chinese state-run media and a small number of foreign reporters attended an exhibition in Beijing on Wednesday. The events were a part of a propaganda push ahead of the 20th National Congress of China's ruling Communist Party.
A new report warns that in cities worldwide, China has opened dozens of ‘overseas police service centers’ - some of which blackmail criminal suspects into returning home to face charges — in breach of globally accepted extradition laws. As Henry Ridgwell reports for VOA, some fear the networks could target political dissidents as well.
A video produced in 2020 by the Lishui City prosecutor’s office in China. Local Chinese associations in Spain have tracked down a suspect wanted for environmental pollution back home.
At a so-called ‘overseas police service center’ in Madrid, he is questioned remotely by police in China. Sitting alongside them is a representative of the suspect’s family. The prosecutor’s video says the suspect was ‘persuaded’ to return home to face charges.
It is a disturbing new tactic, says Laura Harth, a co-author of the report from the human rights group Safeguard Defenders.
“Which basically means threatening, harassing family members and relatives back home to have the so-called fugitive — the person abroad — ‘voluntarily,’ as they call it, return to China.”
Spain confirmed it is investigating the incident.
Chinese authorities boast that between April 2021 and July 2022 they 'persuaded’ over 230-thousand Chinese nationals — mostly living in Southeast Asia — to return home to face criminal proceedings.
The report says China has opened at least 54 police service centers on five continents – according to freely available official documents.
Finn Lau knows well the long reach of the Chinese Communist Party. As a leader of the 2019 Hong Kong protests against Beijing, he was sought by police – and fled to Britain.
Then in 2020, on a street close to his London home, he was attacked by three masked men – who he is convinced were working for the Chinese government.
“I don’t really feel safe in London, especially after the physical or near-death assault in London. Because, well, for years we have many Chinese and Hong Kong dissidents being followed or hassled by the Chinese Communist Party by different means.”
In an email to VOA, the Chinese embassy in London said the Safeguard Defenders report ‘is rife with speculation and lies’ – adding that China fully respects judicial sovereignty.
Henry Ridgwell, for VOA News, London.
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Finally, Japan opened its doors to tourists on Tuesday after two-and-a-half years of strict travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Visa-free travel was reinstated for visitors from dozens of countries, bringing an end to some of the world's strictest border controls.
Leaders hope the move will invigorate the economy and reap some benefits from the yen's slide to a 24-year low.
That’s all the time we have here on VOA Asia Weekly.
Thank you so much for joining us. I’m Chris Casquejo. Please be sure to tune in again next week.
