BEIJING (AP) — China’s state media on Tuesday accused more than two dozen human rights lawyers rounded up in recent days of being troublemakers intent on illegal activism, as foreign governments and rights groups expressed growing concern over the crackdown.
Chinese officials visited Baghdad this weekend to vow cooperation with the Iraqi government in eradicating the Islamic State and rebuilding the oil-rich Iraqi economy. Outlets differ on the sparse details, though the message of resolve to participate in the fight against ISIS appears throughout.
In light of escalating terrorist activity in its western Xinjiang region, the Chinese legislature is considering its first terror-specific criminal code—which, in its current form, would make any speech the government deems to “undermine public security” a criminal violation.
Most experts observing the meeting in Cairo between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi this week are interpreting it as Egypt’s way of letting the Obama Administration know there are other super-power fish in the sea. Judging by the report published in the State-run Xinhua press, China thinks something a bit more serious is going on: sunset for America’s status as the premiere world power.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has personally accused the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, of plotting a “coup d’etat” plan against him, urging the nation’s socialist government to remain on “maximum alert” against Biden and allies of the United States abroad.
Chinese state newspaper Xinhua has published an extensive article announcing the “People’s War” on terrorism, vowing “to introduce a counter-terrorism law at national level” and crush terrorists “like rats” for acts such as the Xinjiang railway attack last year.
