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China’s High-Speed Rail in Crisis, Leaves "Zombie Stations", and Debt Surges to 9 Trillion Dollar

Why Elon Musk is part of Beijing's strategy to manage US-China relations

WASHINGTON—A Chinese man stood quietly by himself at the Victim of Communism Memorial at dusk on June 2. It’s that time of the year again. A candlelight vigil commemorating the students who died in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, was about to start. [embedded content] A survivor of the Chinese student democracy movement that ended with bloodshed in Tiananmen, James Wang, left the Square on the night of June 3, 1989, after military loudspeakers warned students who had occupied there for weeks that soldiers were about to “clear the field.” Shortly after, the slaughter began. By the early morning of June 4, tanks and troops had cleared the area. Hundreds of students, if not more, were killed. James Wang is an alias he uses for his safety. When he joined the movement, he didn’t expect that he and other students would become criminals in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Instead, he had hoped that the CCP, particularly the then reform-minded Party chief Zhao Ziyang, would move China in a direction with more reforms and, eventually, democracy. Then, in that light, the students’ efforts would serve as an additional push. Zhao, who expressed sympathy to the student protestors, was put under 16 years of house arrest until he died in 2005. Now, Wang doesn’t think the CCP will ever bring democracy to China. He doesn’t even want to call for the CCP to restore the reputation of the students who died in Tiananmen Square. “The CCP is bad, and the students are the good people,” he told The Epoch Times. “How is it possible for bad people to restore the reputation of good people?” June 4 signifies the Chinese people’s yearning for democracy and freedom in Wang’s view. The wish for a better China still burns in his heart. He considers people’s freedom and happiness as the key indicator of China’s improvement, and where China stands on that is shown by the status of a Chinese passport: the number of countries willing to receive Chinese tourists without requiring a visa. He said aircraft carriers and fighter jets don’t necessarily win international credibility and respect for China, but a happy population would do. Frank Wolf, a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and former Virginia congressman, and wife Carolyn Wolf attend a candlelight vigil mourning the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Washington on June 2, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) ‘Equal Opportunity Persecutor’ Frank Wolf, a commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and former Virginia congressman, told The Epoch Times that remembering the Tiananmen Square massacre is “very significant” because the CCP’s oppression of the Chinese people “really began with the crackdown in Tiananmen. So, it’s a big deal, and the American people feel strongly about it.” Speaking to the vigil participants, he called the CCP an “equal opportunity persecutor of faith,” referring to its persecution of Christians, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Falun Gong practitioners. During his visit to the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Prison in 1991, Wolf learned that the facility incarcerated 40 inmates who had participated in the Tiananmen Square protest in June 1989. The prison factory subjected detainees to making socks for export. He called for the Biden administration and Congress to ban any lobbying activity on behalf of the CCP in America. “From the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter, and Reagan Administrations, it would have been unthinkable for any reputable firm to take on the Soviet Union as a client,” he said at the vigil. “Yet today, untold profits are being raked in by lobbyists and law firms representing the Chinese communist government and Chinese-controlled companies, whitewashing the abuses and aims of the CCP.” Yang Jianli, president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China, speaks during a candlelight vigil mourning the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Washington on June 2, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) ‘Keep Ideals Alive’ Yang Jianli, president of the advocacy group Citizen Power Initiatives for China, saw the spirit of the 1989 student democracy movement continue in the white paper movement late last year. A deadly fire at a high-rise apartment building in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang region, triggered the protests last November. Residents blamed the pandemic controls for delaying fire response and causing deaths; many believe the number to be much higher than the official tally of 10. People held a blank sheet of white paper to protest the CCP’s draconian COVID lockdowns and the lack of freedom of speech. Over 19 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, saw breakouts of demonstrations to honor the dead and to express discontent. “Just as the students in Tiananmen Square did decades ago, today’s young activists are demanding transparency, accountability, and political freedoms,” Yang said at the event. “The whi

Senators Yuen Pau Woo and Victor Oh have ramped up efforts against enacting a foreign agent registration act as the Canadian government considers the legislation to combat foreign influence. Both senators brought up the issue again at a conference that marked the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Immigration Act, held at the Splendid China Mall in Scarborough, Ont., on Saturday, May 27. The act, introduced on July 1, 1923, is commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, as it resulted from an effort to stop Chinese immigration, stated a May 30 federal government news release recognizing “the national historic significance” of this legislation. The event was organized by a group called the “Reflecting on the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act Organizing Committee.” Woo and Oh were invited as keynote speakers, among several others. Speaking to some 200 attendees, Woo urged the Chinese community to reject “modern forms of Chinese exclusion,” according to a May 28 report by Canadian Chinese Media News. The senator has been asserting that a foreign influence registry might become “a modern form of Chinese exclusion,” as he reiterated in March in response to a tweet by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino announcing that the government had launched public consultations on creating one. Sen.Yuen Pau Woo denounces RCMP allegations of Chinese interference in Canada as community organizer May Chiu looks on during a news conference at the Chinese Family Service Centre in Montreal on May 5, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz) Oh’s speech on May 27 had a similar tone as Woo’s. He told the audience to support petition e-4395, an online petition sponsored by Liberal MP Chandra Arya calling on the federal government to “reconsider its proposed Foreign Influence Transparency Registry.” He added that this piece of legislation “will change your life” and that “tomorrow when you get up, the life will be different; nothing belongs to you anymore.” Parliamentary efforts to create a foreign agent registry have been ongoing for over two years in Canada. Should the law be enacted, individuals advocating for a foreign state will be required to register their activities or face fines or jail time. In the current session of Parliament, Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos has presented Senate Bill S-237 seeking to create the registry, but so far the bill has not received government support. Prior to that, in 2021, then-Conservative MP Kenny Chiu introduced a private member’s bill, C-282, seeking to establish a foreign agent registry act, but the bill never reached second reading before summer break, and an election was called in August that year. Chiu subsequently lost his seat in the B.C. riding of Steveston–Richmond East in the 2021 federal election. He said at the time that he was the target of a widespread misinformation campaign in Chinese media which claimed that Bill C-282 was anti-Chinese. The former MP had stressed that the bill was meant to protect diaspora communities in Canada from harassment and persecution by foreign governments. To date, the United States and Australia have enacted legislation to establish a foreign influence registry. ‘Helped to Draft the Petition’ The event in Scarborough was also attended by other politicians. They included Trade Minister Marg Ng; Liberal MPs Chandra Arya, Jean Yip and Paul Chiang; Ontario MPP Aris Babikian; Markham Deputy Mayor Michael Chan; and Markham Regional Councillor Alan Ho. Arya, who sponsored petition e-4395, in his remarks at the event stated that the proposed registry “is a draconian tool.” The petition was initiated by Li Wang, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident in April. “A registry is a misleading way to identify sources of foreign influence,” it stated, adding that “a foreign influence registry poses a serious harassment and stigmatization risk for racialized communities.” Wang has published several articles in Chinese-language media against the proposed legislation. In one of her articles, dated April 27, she wrote that the petition “received guidance” from Woo. She also noted that Woo, along with Arya and Oh, have accepted interviews and recorded promotion videos for the petition. In an earlier email statement, Woo confirmed to The Epoch Times that he has “helped to draft the petition.” ‘Not the Same’ Oh and Woo have regularly cited racism concerns as part of opposing setting up a foreign agent registry in Canada. In a document that Woo’s office has allegedly repeatedly removed from Woo’s website, but that was publicly archived in 2019, it appears that Oh had joined Woo in leading a forum discussion in 2018 in a manner opposing the proposed foreign agent registration laws in Canada. “This was a non-partisan event that was designed to advance parliamentarians’ understanding of the issues in order to minimize the risk of politicization and public over-reaction to concerns about Chinese influence and interference,” the document said. In